I had surgery today on my right knee - a torn lateral meniscus. As knee surgery goes, not a big deal. The procedure was done in 30 min. When I woke up I a bit disoriented (I heard myself saying "Where is Mary Jane? Where is Mary Jane?" She was, of course, with our friends Kim and Cindi and their boys Zander and Rowan...yeah, disoriented) but that passed relatively quickly and I was in pretty good spirits. Though I had a hard time believing they had actually done the surgery because I couldn’t' remember anything and my knee didn't hurt (thanks pain meds!). Maaike and Rebekah brought me home without incident and got me set up on the couch with my leg propped up, per doctor's orders. All this was just fine.
The challenging part came in a few hours later after all of were at home together for a couple hours. Rebekah and Mary Jane both wanted attention and Maaike was trying to get dinner ready and prepare things for us to leave early the next morning to head up to Duluth for the Cronin family Christmas celebration. As I lay there on the couch, drugged up and somewhat uncomfortable, I realized that I was believing that I was being lazy and that I should be doing more to help Maaike…after all, the reason we were leaving so early the next morning is because I wanted to get to Duluth as early as possible. Then it occurred to me: my responsibility is to do my part. That is all; just my part. Sometimes my part will be “big” and sometimes it will be “small,” but what is important to remember is that the only thing I am truly responsible for is my part. Today my part was to recover from surgery.
What would life be like if I were to focus my energies on simply doing my part? How much freer would I be? Freed from excessive obligation, responsibility, duty, etc. And how much more happy and effective?
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