Dear Body,

I never dreamed that you would hold all the wild falls from good and bad horses, the long hard days of bucking hay bales, pulling calves in brutal weather for years on end against me. I was surprised to wake to a world that you constructed that contained only pain.

I was a woman making it work in a man's world long before
Woman’s lib was much more than a catch phrase. I had to body, it’s all I knew.

I never dreamed that as we aged you would revolt and allow those compound spinal fractures and other injuries to bring me to a screaming from pain halt.

I regret not the injuries that you endured, but that I felt it imperative to keep going in spite of them.

And now my dear body we have reached your payback time.
Enough already.
We endured and lived through four surgeries. I can walk without falling down, without crying out in pain.
You are healing slowly, but then you’re an old body and have been much abused.

Thank you for giving me the chance to try the softer gentler way. I promise to listen when you speak.