Status
Not open for further replies.

arkallen

Distinguished member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
268
Reason
Other
Diagnosis
05/2009
Country
AU
State
VIC
City
Wodonga
It was more than a little awkward when the rehab engineer who is working on B4 pulled into our driveway unannounced with a new cushion to trial. Awkward because B4 has just returned from several days of modifications in his workshop; and awkward because it was Saturday morning and I had started tinkering a couple of hours earlier. By the time he arrived there were B4 bits all over the garage floor, with little to immediately recognize as a power wheel chair. The look on his face! The look on mine!

With barely two weeks of winter left, it's quite impossible to ignore the urge to modify and create and put a new touch on things. Spring is in the air! How can we be still? Like the wind up clocks we had as children, B4 was begging to be ‘opened up’ and understood; and I just reckoned I could also make a few enhancements on the way. Later the same day a good mate came by to help me put the finishing touches to a ramp to our back door that’s been little more than a dream for a few months. Our son was here too, and thankfully the three of us were enough to put humpty together again! B4 is better than ever and finally very close to a comfortable fit. I do love a day when jobs get done. There is an infectious promise of warmth coming back into the world, and it seems to me that everything - even B4 - responds to the invitation of hope.

There are certainly glass-half- full and glass-half-empty people; but that doesn't seem to me to be the point. Some ancient sage is credited with the helpful advice that one should start each day by eating a live toad as an insurance against disappointment. It’s the philosophy of pessimism, but I think it is a contrived way of dealing with life. The world itself, despite being so evidently subject to decay and failure, is a place suffused with hope. It is deeply woven into the fabric of life, the flow of the seasons, the myths and legends of man old and new, and it is hidden deeply in the human heart. The presence of the Creator energises all there is.

Both my favourite poets both embrace the theme, in rather different veins:

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is?
They say the birdie’s on the wing
But that to me’s a silly thing.
The wing is on the birdie. See?

(Attributed to Spike Milligan, and quoted only as I remember it)

And perhaps more significantly...

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring —
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. — Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

(Gerard Manly Hopkins)

The great enemy of my hope is only my noise, especially the racket of doubt and fear. Just as Spring inevitably comes, so also comes the spring of inspiration, creativity and hope; and I am convinced our main task is to patiently wait its appearance.

Across from the workshop where B4 stands in re-modelled glory, gangly infant kangaroos are unfolding from pouches where they barely fit to bound around their mothers in crazy, expanding and exceedingly fast circles. They bang about on the green slopes with tangible delight in the discovery that they bounce. As an Old Testament character declared (in a rather different setting) “The shout of the King is among them”.

And among us.

Rejoice!
 
BRilliant!BUt what shouts at me from this is WHY ARE our POWER CHAIRS NEVER COMFORTABLE when they take so long measuring and pontificating? We already talked about the legs being wrong. I end each day with a backache from something wrong ( cannot quite determine what. I LOVE the freedom it gives me but oh! how I should like to be truly comfortable in it
Well done, Roderick, dear friend. I love the story!
 
Roderick, as always, you have many good points to consider... I'm really, extremely glad you were able to fix B4. I told Phil about your chair last night, and he, "the fixer" shook his head in sympathy as I told him I was sure you would be able to do the job if your body cooperates. And as IrisMarie points out, it seems impossible for those who deal in wheelchairs to understand how to make them comfortable. It's wonderful you, your friend and your son (I didn't realize you had a son) made a ramp for your use. These are both wonderful improvements for your life.

Yes. Hope sometimes needs waiting for, like springtime. We tend to run in cycles inwardly with the downs followed by ups. I pray your times of hope (as well as my own) will conquer and become stronger than any doubt or fear. "The shout of the King is among them" is the cry of victory. Thank you, Roderick. Your writing is a blessing I look forward to each week.

Blessings to you and yours,
Ann
 
I hope my mom read this thread. She's being "fitted" for her pwc this upcoming week. Irismarie - I hope it gives her the freedom you mention. She currently moves from the bed to the couch to the bathroom back to the couch. She looks forward to being able to move around.
 
Hi Linda im sure your mum is going to love her pwc i have had mine for a year now and couldnt live without it :)) i shop,walk the dog,get around the house, and go out on day journeys i call my W/C my legs and they truly are once you have been driving for a while you dont even have to think you just zoom around ... tell your mum im happy for her and to enjoy reclaiming her freedom ! karen
 
BRilliant!BUt what shouts at me from this is WHY ARE our POWER CHAIRS NEVER COMFORTABLE when they take so long measuring and pontificating? We already talked about the legs being wrong. I end each day with a backache from something wrong ( cannot quite determine what. I LOVE the freedom it gives me but oh! how I should like to be truly comfortable in it
Well done, Roderick, dear friend. I love the story!

Irismarie; I feel for you! Over the last couple of days Ive settled into the adjustments I made myself, and I feel its almost perfect now; just so comfortable and useable over long periods. All I have to do is finalise cushion trials, but Im pretty sold on the air cushion Im currently using. I have felt a little apprehension about the situation I would be in if I were not able to make my own adjustments and even alterations to the structure of the chair. When it first arrived I had high hopes and I was rather stunned by how uncomfortable it proved to be after a couple of days. I hope you get there soon.
 
I hope my mom read this thread. She's being "fitted" for her pwc this upcoming week. Irismarie - I hope it gives her the freedom you mention. She currently moves from the bed to the couch to the bathroom back to the couch. She looks forward to being able to move around.

Linda, I hope very much that it works well for you mum too. I just love the pwc; it makes life far more manageable for me than it has been in many months. The freedom to travel easily around the home and abroad is a real joy. I often think how tough it must have been for someone in my position a couple of decades ago. Give my regards to you mother!
 
Roderick, as always, you have many good points to consider... I'm really, extremely glad you were able to fix B4. I told Phil about your chair last night, and he, "the fixer" shook his head in sympathy as I told him I was sure you would be able to do the job if your body cooperates. And as IrisMarie points out, it seems impossible for those who deal in wheelchairs to understand how to make them comfortable. It's wonderful you, your friend and your son (I didn't realize you had a son) made a ramp for your use. These are both wonderful improvements for your life.

Yes. Hope sometimes needs waiting for, like springtime. We tend to run in cycles inwardly with the downs followed by ups. I pray your times of hope (as well as my own) will conquer and become stronger than any doubt or fear. "The shout of the King is among them" is the cry of victory. Thank you, Roderick. Your writing is a blessing I look forward to each week.

Blessings to you and yours,
Ann

Good to have your own "fixer" Im sure Ann!
I will try and post a photo of my family here. We have one son, the eldest, five daughters, a son in law, a daughter in law, a daughter to be married in a month, another who will probably get engaged sometime or other to a fellow we like very much; and two grandsons.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top