I'm Doing Okay!

Just an update.

My fourth day recovering and with an incident like this your mind returns to the moment trying to make sense of what happened. What stands out most is not the incident of aggression but the subsequent kindnesses of those stopping Samaritans coming to me in my hour of need to lift my spirits with love and kindness. Within minutes a blanket and pillow arrived to cover and cushion me. A friend was holding my hand to calm me and we even had a joke or two to lighten the impact. Did you know that there is a single word made up of two? That lovingkindness is all one word.

The NHS came through with super efficiency once again and took me into a busy A&E. Not one but two doctors examined me within minutes, took care of my pain and had me in a CT scanner to check my internal organs and then tell me of the three broken ribs––thankfully, no internal bleeding.

The pain is fairly steadily with me simply because I am breathing––but I definitely know which I prefer! Any cough brings the very worst level of pain when combined with broken ribs. Thankfully, I don't have a cough or cold. I do have intermittent spasms of pain causing quick and uncontrolled intakes of breath but I get through them, recover and they are lessening.

It has been remarkable to hear from you all. Your prayers and good wishes have buoyed me from every corner of the world. Many, many thousands of them. My right side may not manage the tools for a few days and possibly weeks but the doctors see no reason for any permanent physical or mental damage and neither do I.

Yes, it's definitely a great inconvenience to both my work and my day to day life, but the workbench will stay exactly the same as it is with nothing there that will spoil. This may sound gloomy but I assure you it is not. Few men get to the age of 74 and can say what an amazing and fulfilled life they have already lived. If I had to stop working today I could say my reward is a fulfilled life. But we are not there. I have worked each day since the incident on a very limited but enjoyable scale catching up with sketching different studies I want to complete on working hands. It's an ongoing project. And this year I started to sketch details of particular tree types and began with the Horse Chestnut tree.

My family always amazes me with the unique and special love family always has. Soon I will be well again. I'm a patient man because I was trained to that end. Woodworking, as with all hand crafts, demands that we live and work within the parameters of our human limitations. I simply apply the same self-rule to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing of any kind. So thos is my thank you to everyone. I feel loved and cared for!