One of the biggest challenges of
unexpected elbow surgery was finding something to wear after the
fact. While I had an abundance of easy-to-pull on sweatpants to cover
the bottom half, I needed short-sleeved shirts with a button-up
front, and was amazed to discover how very few I had. Even
long-sleeved shirts that I wouldn't mind cutting the right arm off of
were in scarce supply. My husband kindly raided his own closet,
finding several old shirts and pajama tops that I could likewise
alter to handle first a bulky cast and then a similarly-sized brace.
While they would work for wearing around the house, I wondered what I
would do about going out in public. Clearly a shopping trip was in
order.
Even in the stores I found little to
choose from; the stock was mostly of the pull-on variety that I
couldn't yet handle. But suddenly I came across a couple of clearance
items – three button-up shirts with short-sleeves that I could
easily slit to slide my arm into! While they were not a style I would
normally choose, at this point I couldn't be picky; they were good
enough to get me through till I could wear my normal clothes once
more. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I might only
wear for a short time, so I rejoiced at the savings and dumped them
in the cart. As my healing progressed, so did my shopping selections;
soon I was moving on to zippered items with sleeves that I could wear
inside the brace. There was a little more selection here and I could
almost feel my husband's growing alarm as I got more interested in
the shopping process and added sports jackets and higher-quality
sweatpants I discovered in the fitness sections
of the stores. While my closet was filling up fast, I knew that many
of the items were for short-term use only, however included in the
bunch were some real finds that made even my husband smile.
My wardrobe problems were minor in the
big scale of things, but they reminded me that sometimes we find
ourselves woefully unprepared to handle major crises in our lives.
Physically, financially, but more often emotionally and spiritually,
we discover we don't have the resources to deal with trouble when it
hits. After taking stock of what we have to offer, we can
temporarily borrow what we need from people who are near and dear to
us. But eventually we have to get for ourselves what we lack. And so
we go shopping, sometimes for physical items we need in recovery, but
more often for attitudes and thought patterns, mindsets that we can
put on that will get us through. While some recovery aids are
temporary in nature, some of our discoveries offer life-long change,
and put a purpose-filled perspective on the problem that we had never
before considered. Those difficulties we initially bemoaned we can now
even give thanks for having gone through, so favorably have the
resultant changes impacted our lives.
Sometime during the months I've been away, my
employer instituted a change in the work uniform among its employees.
Blue pullover polo shirts have were replaced with white button-up
dress shirts and black vests, a detail that made me smile. My
thinking on some things has likewise been challenged and changed; new
clothes on the outside will remind me that I'm returning to work wearing new thought patterns, as well.
“...but be
transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its
new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for
yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of
God...”
(Romans 12:2 AMP)
