I have not really felt like blogging. The world feels like it is caving in on me. My father's death, a slew of personal things involving one of my kids, dreading my father's funeral in Oklahoma, the turmoil in our country, etc. Now I also have a serious injury.
Two weeks ago, after a wonderful African dance class that felt so healing, I caught my foot on a curb in the parking lot and took a hard and very painful fall onto asphalt. I have badly strained, perhaps torn slightly, my right rotator cuff. I cannot raise my arm in certain positions without pain. Performing is out of the question right now. I wonder if I will really be able to dance again, though I am certain I will. At 58, it takes more time for injuries to heal. I'm doing all the exercises and treatments the doctor has said to do. I will likely get physical therapy.
I have survived serious injuries to dance again: removal of a tumor on the same shoulder which now has the rotator cuff injury. I injured my knee early in dance with a teacher who understood nothing about body mechanics. I badly injured my right hamstring a few years ago by slipping on a friend's too-slippery floor. I fractured my lower spine in 2013, and daily do exercises to help this. I have no doubt that, in time, my shoulder will be okay. Physical therapy and not pushing beyond my capabilities right now are wonderful things, especially.
In the meantime, I am attending dance classes, keeping my arms down at hip level, and am focusing on body mechanics, with really interesting results--really learning how the muscles work in certain aspects of dance and choreographies, focusing on steps and cleaning up my footwork, really listening to music...amazing what can be done when you don't really have to focus on what your arms are doing.
Talk about making lemonade out of lemons! That part has been so interesting and something I might not have focused on had I not acquired this injury.
It's an interesting time...the weather is beautiful, but the sensibility of each day seems foggy and clouded. I know things will change--they always do--and I wait for the wheel of fortune to turn in my favor again.
