Today I jumped a major hurdle--I got back on my bike! I left you four days ago on Cloud 9, the top of the mountain! That night I suffered so much pain in the area of my appendix, I could barely sleep. But I was more than ashamed to even mention it to anyone who had heard my joy over my new bicycle! Yeh, right! This is what happens to grannies when they get up on a bicycle after all these years. I do have bursitis in the left hip, sciatica on the right, overall stiff joints, and yes, overweight by at least fifteen pounds. What had I expected? Lance Armstrong--not!
Wednesday, the pain was not much better, and I had no energy at all; I felt kind of like I might be getting sick. Fortunately, it was pouring rain outside--the six day multiple storm system that stretched way west into Russia--so, I had a built-in excuse for not riding, an excuse that is, not connected to pain.
Wednesday evening I went to urgent care. The doctor was great. She's out of age range herself for appendicitis, but she said she had had hers removed just three years ago. She was thorough in her examination and sympathetic. Upshot, yes, I did have the classic pain symptoms of appendicitis in just that area (there are no muscles to speak of there), but no infection symptoms at all. The only way to tell for certain would be a CAT Scan.
My husband downplays everything, and he thought the coincidence was just too great--somehow, I had strained something by riding my bicycle. So I took a substitute Thursday and just lay very low, body, heart, and soul. Thursday evening for the second time I put on an eight hour hot pack and took a goodly portion of Tylenol.
Friday morning--all better! As in all! Yahoo!
Today's challenge was to get back up on the bike. Once on it, I saw that things were going well, so I decided to pedal over to my local bicycle shop, the one where I had purchased my bike. The trick in that was figuring out how to get there on two wheels instead of four. The main problem was the intersections. Bikes are different than cars. It's a whole different point of view.
I still have some dyslexia with the shifters when under stress, and intersections are definitely stressful. I end up making it harder to pedal when I need easier, and easier when I need harder. But the real problem was figuring out just where to get on the correct side of the street, when to follow the traffic rules for cars, when to act like a bicycle, where to cross over, things like that.
The worst time was when the bicycle lane I was in just kind of vanished beside a six lane freeway exchange, and a sign said, "Bicyclists may stay on the sidewalk."
Unfortunately, the sidewalk wasn't going where I wanted to go. So, I rode back on the wrong side a thousand yards or so, got onto the boulevard with the cars, got into the left hand lane, and turned the same way a car would. Figuring out how to get to the front door of the bike shop without dismounting was a little hard, but not nearly as difficult as figuring out how to cross that complicated intersection.
Once in the bike shop, I asked them if they had ever heard of someone irritating their appendix by riding, but they had not. So, I really don't know what had caused my pain. Just one of those things.
I bought some oil for my chain, had them tighten my hand grip with a small Allen, and then home. Home was easy, because they were all right turns.
Fifty-five minutes total, back up on the mountain, hearing the birds, smelling the wet leaves, exuberating in the freedom of my brand new bicycle. Next challenge will be actually oiling my own bicycle chain.
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I woke up this morning feeling like I was emerging from a cocoon. The first verse of Psalm 23 greeted me, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," with the emphasis falling on Lord and not. I shall not ever be lacking for spiritual care and keeping, because my shepherd is the Lord.
Verses two and three describe the kind of good, good feeding and care the Lord provides His sheep. Then verse four speaks of death. Yes, we do encounter trials, low periods, darkness, gloom, despair, hopelessness, all these; but in Christ, these pass like the winter storms.
Christian living begins in death, the death of our own sin, and the subsequent repentance and belief in the redemptive death and resurrection of Christ our Savior and Lord. Following that our Christian walk leads us continually through the valleys of the shadow of death. But where there is death in Christ, there is also resurrection in Him. No death and dying, no resurrection. Consider these words of Jesus.
John 12:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain."
Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
Living in Christ means living a constant series of deaths and new beginnings. We do the dying, but our Good Shepherd brings the new beginnings.
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