Resiliency

 Resiliency...Webster says it is:

"the capability of a strained body to recover it's size and shape after a deformation caused especially by compressive stress"

Well, my friend, this is MY LIFE the past 10 days. Immediately after 'the occurrence of compressive stress' last Monday the 4th of February, I wrote an email to my friends and family. Many of you have already received this but for those who have not...read on:

Good morning my friends-

If you are reading this email, you are a close friend, family or are one of my kids and I just wanted to share with you pictures and the event surrounding my 'new look'!!

Yesterday while Elder Shaner and I were travelling to a nearby area to help move some Elders to their new apartment, we decided to stop at a little city on the way to pick up some sweet rolls for their 'merienda'...this bakery makes the most amazing rolls [we stop there frequently and Elder buys a couple for his 'breakfast']. He pulled off the road and I got out to cross the street and purchase the rolls. Here in the Philippines, things are very different...there are asphalt or cement roads, curbs and at the curb, there are normally a cemented gutter that contains water, runoff from who know what! I stepped out of the car and noticed the curb, the gutter and water and stepped on top of the incline, not realizing it was slimy. I started to slide and picked up my foot,deciding in a split second to just step into the little water [which is normally only 1"-2" deep] because I was wearing my Crocs. WWEELLLLL..unseen to me was a hold in the cement, under the water that was probably 8-10" deep and my foot went into the hole. Now what are the chances that he would park there, I would get out and find that stupid hole???? Anyway, as I tried to pull my foot out, it got stuck and in the melee of getting myself free, I lost my balance and went FACE FIRST into the road!! I didn't even have time to break my fall with my hands it was SO fast! I hit my nose full force with my weight, also banging up my knee and as I dislodged my foot from the culprit hole, I scraped it quite badly. My elbows also took a little of the excitement and to say the least, I was hurting. My glasses are destroyed as well as my pride!

Immediately, I had the 'help' of 4-5 women who were bystanders at a nearby roadside eatery. They were trying to get me up and I kept telling them to leave me..blood was pouring out of my face and I knew I needed to get it stopped before I got up. Randy asked one of them for some ice and within 15 seconds a bag of crushed ice appeared. I pressed my face into the ice and about 5-8 minutes later the gushing had stopped and I got myself up. They all insisted I go to the doctor across the street and I declined, telling Randy I needed to go onto Santiago. We had a missionary there last summer who had been hit by a motorcycle and needed surgery-it is one of three hospitals in the mission that the Mission Doctor approved for our care. It is a 7th Day Adventist hospital and it was very good. The Emergency Room was clean and the staff were very professional. I was cleaned up, stitched up [my glasses had been destroyed but in the impact the cross nose piece pierced the bridge of my nose and the nose piece itself gouged into my eye socket]. I had two stitches on the bridge of my nose.

Two TENDER MERCIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
             #1---NOTHING BROKE EXCEPT MY GLASSES AND THE NECKLACE I WAS WEARING. One fear I had when we came here was breaking something and needing to go home early. That would have been so horrible for me!! A hip would have been devastating!!
             #2---I STILL HAVE ALL MY TEETH!!! As I laid there in the street, the very FIRST thing I did when I saw the blood pouring out of my face was to run my tongue over my teeth! Noses and skin will heal but teeth, here in the Philippines??? Whoa baby!!!

As I laid on the table in the Emergency Room, I started to giggle. The doctor was a little puzzled and asked me 'what is so funny?' I told her 'if my mom was alive and she was here, we would be laughing our buns off!! We both had a very odd sense of humor and found humor in so many things.' Hope she was watching from above and got a good laugh out of it!!

We continue to motor on but for the next two weeks, I will probably download many books [thanks again Claudia-I never thought I would love this Kindle much or think of you every day as I read] or watch a few movies. We are going to Baguio in March for a senior retreat and I have to plan our training session so will also work on that also. Randy will be a 'senior single' and will do just fine.

Now you all are caught up on MY escapades...like the title to this email says, 'I have always wanted to have a black eye' and got my wish...X2!!!!!!!!

loveyouall-cheri/mom/Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I am constantly amazed at the resilience of this old body of mine! I will be 65 years old in June and who would ever have guessed this old body would heal as quickly as it has. I am now on day 10 and am back to 'normal'...well as normal as I ever am! haha!

Here are some visuals to see-enjoy!

In the Emergency room

Me with my doctor Sarah Vallientos

Stitchin up the nose

This is how I feel about the whole thing...like a real stoop!!

Then comes the resiliency factor...

\

Today as the sun shines...still a few little 'owies' but relatively better.

This one is for those of you freezing your buns off...it is a balmy 80* here today and we are loving it!

I guess one thing that I realized throughout this past two weeks is that I might just have a touch of pride...I was very embarrassed by the entire event and come to realize it was just my pride. I remember a great talk years ago on that very subject by President Ezra Taft Benson and the dangers that it can bring. I have read and reread that talk many times over the years and in it he says 'pride is a very misunderstood sin and many are sinning in ignorance'. Before our mission, I don't remember ever falling down. Here, I have fallen numerous times and probably because of that, I am a little self-conscious and sensitive about it. Old people fall. I am NOT old...I am not clumsy. I am not awkward. Well, that is what I have been telling myself for many years but the conditions are different here...it is a dangerous place to be...etc. 

There are times when our spirits and hearts become injured and we think 'I will never be the same' or 'I cannot ever recover from this hurt.'  In the Philippines, I would guess that probably 90% of the inactivity in the church is due to 'being offended'. That is nothing more than pride and an unwillingness to forgive. I will forgive my body. It let me down. My core was not strong enough to keep myself from ending up in the street but bodies heal...as so also with hearts and spirits and how do we do that? As my children's pediatrician always told me..."Mrs Shaner. You just need the elixir of time" Time has healed my external wounds and the same with our unseen wounds...time will heal if we will allow Him to help us and give it 'the elixir of time'