What I learned after a chair ate my face

The other evening I had an unfortunate mishap where my face (particularly my eye) met the corner of my chair in a rather harsh way.

Blood. Swelling. Awesome. (Sarcasm). I mean, really? How annoying, right?

It wasn't until the next day when I found out I needed surgery that my annoyance turned into frustration and fear. Surgery? How important are tear ducts, really? ...Or as a matter of fact, tear ducts, while they seem small and insignificant are actually quite important to the make up and function of the eye. Who knew?! Without them, I guess the flowage and drainage of liquid gets really messed up (do you like my doctor lingo?!) and it can significantly impact the eye's vision. Cool.

Needless to say, I went in for surgery last Sunday night where the Ocular Plastic Surgeon was able to reconstruct my tear ducts and stitch my face back together. The surgery was quick. I was in and out of the hospital within 6 hours. Simple.

It was the next 24 hours or so after surgery that wasn't so simple. It is incredible how fragile and resilient the body can be at the same time. While my eye was working over time to heal itself, the effect of the anesthesia coupled with pain meds knocked my body out. I was literally a limp and helpless girl that depended on others for EVERYTHING. Food, water, drugs, walking (yep to the restroom too) etc.

I needed others.

No matter how much I wanted to do it on my own; to be strong, to NOT need others, the hard fact was that I couldn't do it on my own. I was a pathetic, helpless 30 year old.

The cool thing about needing others was as I watched my friends take care of me, I got to see a part of them that I wouldn't have gotten to see if I didn't need them.

Their ability to sacrifice, love, care, provide, encourage, and nurture. All of these characteristics I knew were somewhere within my friends... but I got to see the beauty of each of these characteristics in action.

and now I see my friends in a new light.

and I'm sure they see me in a new light too.

It's interesting. As I laid on the couch I thought about this need for each other in terms of my torn out tear duct. Go with me for a second... the tear duct was something small that effected so much of my vision without me even knowing it -----> I think that is how we are with needing each other.

We need each other. It seems like such a small thing... to need each other.
But when we don't have each other, it affects our entire vision
of everything.
And we miss out on the beauty of TRULY seeing each other.

So I guess the next time your face gets eaten by a chair... or something less extreme happens, lean into someone. Allow yourself to NEED them.

It will change your vision.