So much of Sam's journey has felt like being between a rock and a hard place so much of the time. Finding a place of balance. This week there has been a flurry of email's between Sam's team at school (and may I say that we have been blessed with a great team to work with Sam at school!) and myself to decide how to handle the fitness run.
The fitness run takes place every fall and spring and is one of the benchmarks the district uses to measure a student's fitness. Sam's school makes a fun event out of it. The kids walk over to the high school, It is one large campus, elementary, middle school, then high school on the far side with numerous sports fields in between, so the walk is maybe a quarter of a mile down a few hills. Once at the high school the kids find a corner of the track to start at and wait for the go. Second graders need to walk twice around the track.
My rock and a hard place is how to let Sam feel like a typical kid, yet keep him safe. For the fun run what can Sam do yet not over tax himself, bring on a headache or worse yet break a bone. Last year in first grade, for the fall Sam propelled his wheelchair around the track once in the fall as he was still on weight bearing restrictions following the femur fracture of July 2012. In the spring he was healed more so he walked once around. This fall he is doing really well so I thought he could walk the two times around his classmates will, providing he does not have to walk to the track.
The emails have been debating what Sam could do. After watching Sam practice last week, the DAPE teacher thought Sam would be better off only doing one lap. His gait really falls apart after hardly any distance. DAPE teacher described it as herky jerky, I describe it as galloping. So I will pick up Sam at school and drive him down to the track and he will walk one lap with his classmates.
Being between a rock and a hard place speaks of balance between two undesirable situations. Trying to find your way on a balance beam and not fall to either the rock or the hard place. This past Wednesday, my pastor taught out of Dueteromny 6. He showed how balance of life is not mentioned in the Bible, but rhythm is. Rhythm swings like a pendulum through a semi-circle. We swing to difficult situations and then to easy ones. Lately, we have been spending a lot of time on the easy side of Sam's disease, not needing to make a lot of accommodations for him. Monday's fun run is swinging us to the other side for a while. It is encouraging to realize that we will swing back to the easy side again, rather than cross a balance beam of unknown length. It is a relief to know the pendulum keeps on swinging, I will not stay stuck between the rock and a hard place.
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Thanks to Ellen for this week's "Rocks" prompts. I really surprised myself with where it took me.
