These Days I am Thankful for Benches — Donna Hopkins

I’m quitting, but ask me in 2 weeks.

I have reached the age where I can cause injury to myself simply by squatting and standing up. If I am to tell the whole truth, I’ve pushed my body pretty hard over the past 6 months. Photography is a physical activity. And I love that part. But, I’ve spent a lot of time in fields of flowers, squatting low and standing up and down, over and over again, carrying a heavy camera. I’ve also spent a lot of time setting up still life images, holding various positions for way too long. Still, I wouldn’t trade one minute of the whole process.

Well, I would re-think a few minutes of work, when I knew I should stop and rest, but did not. It’s been just over 2 weeks since the searing, throbbing, radiating pain spread down my left hip and into my leg. That’s two weeks of anti-inflammatory medication, heat, physical therapy, and intense pain with standing and walking, and really just all day long. At first, the pain was so great, I just collapsed into tears. I could not eat or think or sleep. But the human body is a marvel, and it will heal given time and proper care. I’m on the mend from what my doctor thinks was a compressed spinal nerve. In the meantime, I am incredibly grateful for my husband, who has taken such good care of me, and for this day, when I felt up to a walk in a beautiful place.