"Help I Need Somebody..."

My laughing Buddha
faces the front door and
helps me remember a sense of perspective

“If you’re carrying more than you can handle today, choose to let some of it go by letting someone else in”.

http://tinybuddha.com


Today’s NaBloPoMo prompt is to write about what is the hardest word for me to say.

For me, it’s not really a word – I find it difficult to ask for help.

A year or so ago I was given some free-standing wooden shelving for my garden shed. There were five solid wood shelves, and the whole unit was heavy and difficult to manoeuvre. From the cottage to the shed is a distance of about 30yards. The shelving was intact; the screws to secure the shelves were all in place but not fully tightened.

 I was keen to get the shelves in place so that I could better organise the shed. I woke up early and decided to get the job done. I emptied everything out of the shed so that the unit could be positioned where I wanted it. Then I needed to drag the unit across and inside the shed.

 It was obvious to me as I did this that the unit was too much for me to handle alone. At this point I could have asked for help but instead I persisted. I heaved the unit through the shed door and literally backed myself into a corner with it. Then the whole unit decided to collapse trapping my left hand with the whole of its weight. The pain was excruciating – a mixture of pinch and crush. It took a while for me to extricate my hand as I needed to raise the entire weight with my other hand.

 The swelling and bruising was very impressive. I needed help to get it bandaged and for the next two days spent a lot of my time continuing to ask for help.

A poem by Robert Frost

The Armful

For every parcel I stoop down to seize
I lose some other off my arms and knees,
And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns --
Extremes too hard to comprehend at once,
Yet nothing I should care to leave behind.
With all I have to hold with hand and mind
And heart, if need be, I will do my best
To keep their building balanced at my breast.
I crouch down to prevent them as they fall;
Then sit down in the middle of them all.
I had to drop the armful in the road
And try to stack them in a better load.