This is Your Foot on Drugs

In a moment of silliness last night, my sweetheart told me I should blog about the torture device pictured here on my foot.  We spent a solid minute going back and forth about this; I wondered aloud what “Das Boot” has to do with Karma Cooler and he went on about how I would figure it out.  I really think he was messing with me, but because I’m stubborn, I’m taking him up on the challenge.

Now, continuing with the “stubborn” theme, I hate relying on other people.  HATE.  I like to learn, I like to do things for myself, I like it when other people feel they can lean on me.  But I have to make a concerted effort to be gracious and accept the help of others because I’d rather be the one to help.  This mentality has affected me to my detriment in the past and I have to believe that by recognizing this flaw, it better equips me to deal with situations of helplessness now.

Which is precisely my predicament currently.  Foot surgery isn’t catastrophic, but the help of others makes recovering a whole hell of a lot easier.  You take for granted how much effort it is to get your breakfast, have a cup of coffee, situate yourself on the bed with most of the things you could possibly need being at arm’s length. I could have gotten about on my own though I could have risked falling, doing damage to my sewn-up surgical wounds or spilling any number of things and making a complete and total mess.  So here I am feeling pretty helpless in a lot of ways and chances WERE that I would be willing to push myself stubbornly to do whatever needed to be done to avoid the debate in my mind on whether or not I would seek his assistance.

But here’s the thing:  I was never faced with that decision.  I never had to ASK for help from the beginning – because he was there to make every last task as pain and worry-free as possible for me. I never had the chance to really debate whether or not I’d just take care of things on my own because he was so selfless, and kind, and didn’t think once (let alone twice) about leaving me to risk messing with the healing process.

And now, because I want to make myself better and be the type of person who is as gracious as she is giving, I’m learning to ask for help, even when I don’t have to – hell, BECAUSE I don’t have to.

I share this story with you because I believe in my heart that it is just as noble to ask for help as it is to lend your hand.  It’s brave to be that selfless and come to someone’s aid, but it’s also brave to have a little faith in others (especially those that love you the most, like your family, friends and significant others).

What do you think?