Saving the World (And My Week) One Tree at a Time
Yesterday wasn't one of my better days. I hurt my left shoulder last November and didn't realize that it was bad until December. I was traveling but made an appointment to see my physician upon my return in January. The diagnosis was damage to the rotator cuff and the prescribed treatment was a cortisone injection. That's when things started going downhill. The pain increased, my ability to exercise decreased, and the days grew into weeks which grew into months.
Here we are almost seven months later. There's been a steady and unwelcome increase in the pain and my frustration with being physically unable to do basic household tasks. Three months of physical therapy, a lot of icing, more pain relievers than I care to admit, and four cortisone shots haven't done the trick. My surgery is scheduled for May 26th but I wish it were this afternoon. The surgeon told me yesterday that I've probably got a four to six week recovery after the surgery but if there is a hole in the rotator cuff muscle then I'm looking at four to six months. I'm generally an optimist but after everything that I've tried and suffered through with this injury, I can't help but be pessimistic and that got me pretty down yesterday afternoon and evening.
My best friend, Sid Levin, emailed me a link yesterday to a blog article about his family. I didn't want to read it when I was feeling so glum so saved it for this morning. I should have read it yesterday. It would have given me the boost that I needed but better late than never.
If you're looking for a boost or just enjoy a feel good story about how wonderful kids tend to be, then read the story about how Sid's family spent six hours in their minivan driving from Minneapolis to the Superior National Forest up in northeastern Minnesota, planted hundreds of trees over a couple of days, and then drove back. This is a story about a husband and wife who love each other deeply and who are blessed to have four wonderful and very unique kids. This is a story about Mitch Levin, a kid who knows everything about baseball and who is about to become a Bar Mitzvah yet chose to spend a weekend in a minivan with his three younger siblings and parents and out in the cold woods planting trees so that future generations will be able to enjoy one of the most tranquil and beautiful places in the world as much as he, his parents, and his grandparents have. This is a story that I needed to hear.
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