Here's the short story: Luminous Mind will be on hiatus until I'm healed well enough to live at home again, which will be some time after January 24th.
Here's the long story:According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a
bardo is a between-time, an island... the space between the end of one thing and the beginning of something else, such as the bardo between the end of one life and the beginning of another.
And so now I find myself in a bardo of healing.
I had surgery on December 10 for a stress fracture to my right hip. Stress fractures are the kind of injuries that long distance runners sometimes get and are caused by repetitive injury to the same place. In my case, my left Achilles tendon was sore for many months so I limped heavily on the right side of my body. When my chiropractor wasn't able to adjust the hip for 6 weeks because of his own health, we think the accumulated stress caused a fracture.
My surgery went about as well as it could possibly go. The fracture was in the femoral neck of the hip, and went all the way through vertically. The surgeon was able to align the bone perfectly, then insert a plate and five screws (one for each of the five Buddha families). Since emerging from surgery, I have not been in the kind of pain I was in for those last two weeks of living with a fractured hip.
I was in the orthopedic floor of Baptist Hospital for five days, then transferred to inpatient Rehab for a week. They released me last Wednesday to my parents' home, which is completely accessible. Yesterday I saw my surgeon, who removed the staples and took an x-ray. He says everything is healing beautifully. The femoral neck is what feeds blood to the ball of the hip joint, and we won't know for 2-3 months if that connection is operating as it should, but all looks good for now.
Even so, the bone has to have time to bond back together, so I'm not allowed to put any weight on my right leg for six to eight weeks. That means I can't live at home because it's a two-story house, and I can't drive. I will be staying at my parents' home in Murfreesboro until at least January 24, the date of my next doctor's appointment. It's a world of wheelchairs and walkers for me for awhile.
So... Luminous Mind is also in a bardo of sorts. I had hoped to at least come in a couple of times in January for a Friday night meeting. However, on the day I was released, I tried using the walker to get down the hill and into the house, and it was precarious and scary. I really can't try that again till I'm able to walk properly.
I appreciate all the good wishes, calls, and emails from everyone. I miss you all. If some of you would like to at least sit together every week or two during this time, let me know and perhaps we can make something happen. Gerald has a key to my house or else we can work something else out in my absence. We recently deepened our bond as a community since the retreat, and I think that bond will transcend this between-time.
Traditionally, bardos are considered to be very opportune times for insight and awareness, because of the space they open up in our routine. We can see things freshly and clearly, and we can see what's important. I look forward to hearing about your practice and insights when we meet again. I'll be in touch.
Until then, I can be reached:
Cell: 479-7956
Email: rita@luminousmind.net
Rita Frizzell
419 Rushwood Drive
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
P.S. Many of you know that Stella ran away from my parents' house the day after my surgery... probably looking for me, we think. She was lost for four days then somehow made her way back to my parents' back door, where she was enthusiastically welcomed home. Here she is visiting me in the hospital. Stella was hungry and tired but unharmed, and is doing great now, happy to have her Mommy back home.
