Walking - For Real - Into the New Year

Birds dance amorously outside my kitchen window. They must know warm coffee is awakening my insides... in my newly cleaned out, organized kitchen.

We moved into this house three weeks after my right ankle was surgically reattached in December of 2009. Two weeks after the move, an ambulance carried me back to Piedmont where I endured a back operation due to an off-the-charts herniated disk.

My right leg was never the same. And my house never conquered.

A year ago today I  underwent the first of three orthopedic operations this year. While that story has been told, what I didn't know until two weeks ago was that after all those surgeries my legs would work again.

I can go to a movie without thought and even sit up high. I can run more than one errand a day, walking in and out of large stores without exhaustion. I can wear Ariat cowboy boots, organize my house without wearing out, climb the stairs more than twice a week, and even drive some with my right foot without triggering hip pain.

My leg hasn't trembled at night when tired. And I ended an afternoon of shopping yesterday with a victory lap around Belk's - in my cowboy boots - just because.

My right knee may need attention and I'm in therapy for my wrist and shoulder. So I bask in one-day-at-a-time living right now.

But I'm maneuvering with an ease I'd long forgotten.

After eight years, lots of daily supplements and meds, and five surgeries, I can wear normal shoes, control forward foot motion, and walk without wondering when my legs will go weak. And that's enough of a miracle to end a year and begin another - with a cleaned out kitchen even.

Several news articles have labeled 2013 "a bad year". Three surgeries in ten months could warrant a similar status. Yet that "bad" year has led to what seems a new beginning after eight years of more than hard.

Life is a journey. A marathon. A constant exercise in trusting when He gives and when He takes away.

So Happy New Year.

We start again.

And keep walking towards eternity.