I am lucky to be alive! I was given a gift these last 6 weeks of recovering from being hit by an SUV that ran a stop sign. When the accident happened, I was stopped at a 4 way stop and proceeded through on my rare ‘71 GTR Vespa with no one in sight and then felt the strong momentum of him barreling through the intersection knocking me off tumbling into the middle of the road. I was conscious but in shock and pain. Bystanders came dashing in to help including a black lab and a minister who prayed over me at the scene. Before I knew it an ambulance was there and my clothes were being cut from my body. I remembered the words I used to meditate with on a retreat: “this is how it is. It is like this right now.” I said these over and over in my mind to try to find some calming equanimous stream to have access to. It worked as I settled in to my new reality of pain.
It could have been a lot worse. Most of the bruising, sprains and strains have healed up well. My shoulder had 3 ligaments torn to create a Grade 5 AC separation. I was harnessed up during the healing process for several weeks. I just took my brace off all day yesterday for the first time. I’m mobile, but the recovery process now feels like its merely entering the next chapter. Fortunately, I will have a lot of experience to share with patients firsthand for treatments to come.
I am so grateful to be alive, to be able to walk and turn my head, to have had my sister, my partner, and friends come to my aid, and so much more. There are many things you need two arms for like dressing yourself, flossing your teeth, tying your shoelaces, you name it!
I hope this is a reminder for you to cherish some of the simple things. We never know when it may be our time to leave this planet, to experience tragedy or loss. I hope as well this is a reminder to be more present with whatever you are doing. . . especially driving!! Please leave driving for driving ONLY. Life is too precious to multi-task when you are on the road. I’ve been riding my now deceased Vespa “on defensive” for the last 12 years, but that wasn’t enough.
I will ultimately be ok. I improve more and more as time goes on. When the day comes I can do some version of yoga and dance again I will feel like the luckiest girl in the world!!
Through the course of my healing time I saw just how much my meditation practice served me in a time of need. You don’t realize how much mind and heart training goes into a simple practice of sitting still. It truly reprograms your reactions, your responses, and your outlook. Having tasted states of equanimity so clearly from practice, it became the backbone of my state of being during the accident and right after, so I could make it through shock and pain. Radical acceptance was necessary to acclimate to the situation.
I also took the time during my healing at home to practice energy medicine such as medical qi gong and Theta Healing. This has become such a foundation for my own self-healing, that I do see being able to offer such things to patients in the near future. I am very excited about this and will definitely keep you all posted when this comes about.