damn, look how it’s grown
(ps TODAY: last day of New Art & Sliding Scale)
I spent a lot of time with people whose bodies were experiencing huge changes when I worked as a physical therapist in the hospital and ICU. We are made of malleable and mutable stuff. We can wake up on the other side of an accident or illness in a body that feels and functions very differently than before.
Finding the part of ourselves that was never injured is a necessary step — however imperceptible, however inconsequential it may seem.
The first conversation I have with someone who loses function of a leg is how to become their other leg’s closest ally — how to stay connected to it, protect & strengthen it, enjoy it even. Because it is the part that is not injured that is going to adapt and care for the parts that have changed as we get to know them as they are now.
When we live with overwhelming chronic pain, it is profoundly important to notice and really FEEL that the skin on our elbow or our earlobe actually feels neutral, even safe. We pra…