A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. --Jean de La Fontaine
By now, you know I love inspiring and thought-provoking quotes. As I pondered this one, I wondered how it applied to me. It occurred to me that my not-so-distant hip replacement surgery could be viewed as something I tried to avoid. I rejected the idea, rejected the need for surgery, rejected that I couldn't fix myself.
Of course, I was wrong. I desperately needed the surgery and, when it was over, wondered why I had taken such lengths to avoid it. Fear, obviously. Pride, most assuredly.
As I was recovering, I learned some things about myself. Perhaps that was the real destiny I was trying to avoid: that of self-awareness. I learned that I was prideful, not wanting to ask for help, not wanting to admit that I couldn't take care of myself and my home. Circumstances humbled me to need and to ask for my husband's assistance in putting on the compression stockings, even to getting in and out of the shower. They also forced me to ask friends for rides to physical therapy and to hire someone to help with the housework.
Surgery was my first destiny; rehabilitation was the second. But neither was as eye-opening or painful as my acceptance of my own limitations.
This I know for sure: the destiny we try to avoid is often the one that is most needed.
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