Aging, Dying, Or Just Injured

In my recovery from a broken ankle, I’m faced with a few uncomfortable realities. A touch of bursitis has hit my shoulders, and my doctor advises it won’t really get much better. Arthritis in a thumb doesn’t impact my music. Yet. Basal cell cancer has taken a few chunks off the skin on my head. Orthopedic staff suggested a year to get my ankle fully recovered.

I found I’m not really a priority for physical therapy, despite doctor’s orders to start three weeks ago. No matter. The internet makes it easy to begin.

So, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer of an aging Jesuit seems more apt than it was when I was first introduced to it years ago. I’m not really losing significant faculties of the mind or body yet, but the petition itself seems to speak to tendons, ligaments, and bone being pushed to painful separation:

… grant that I may understand that it is You
(provided my faith is strong enough)
who are painfully parting the fibers of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow
of my substance and bear me away within Yourself.