Pearl or Pain, Your Choice

^{Creepy characters on a table pad at the podiatrist!}

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Today was a day of doctor appointments for my wife and I. She broke her ankle on our last day of vacation and I had my final visit concerning my plugged sweat gland on my foot that I mentioned in a previous post. While waiting in the chair for the podiatrist to come in, poke my foot, and then release me to my future adventures, I begin to think how much pain and suffering was caused by such a tiny part of the body. How such a infinitesimal piece of debris entered a sweat gland and pretty much shut me down from all, but the most necessary activity. It was astounding to me.

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^{Last few moments in a temp. cast hopefully.}

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^{Apparently I didn't get enough sun on vacay....lol}

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After my appointment, we grabbed a quick lunch a nearby Mexican restaurant and it was absolutely DIVINE. I love lunch dates with my wife and our time together, for the most part, is a positive and uplifting experience for both of us. We are both the quintessential optimists and we always look for the silver lining in most every situation.

After lunch, we had a follow up appointment for my wife and her banged up ankle. We got a good report and she is healing exceptionally well for such a short period of time. So well, in fact, that they agreed to place her in a plastic, reinforced boot as opposed to a traditional cast. This was a true blessing because my wife is claustrophobic and a solid cast would drive her bananas(she has cut off two casts in the past against Dr's orders). It also afforded her increased mobility and more independence which she craves desperately. Although she knows I adore her and love taking care of her, she hates to be dependent upon anyone and I completely understand because I am the same way.

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Ok, back to the original thoughts that inspired this post. When we were on vacation at my favorite all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, my wife was eating fried oysters when she bit into something hard. She exclaimed, " You're not going to believe this" as she produced a perfectly round pearl from her mouth! She had bitten into a pearl that was in the fried oyster!

So when I was sitting in the doctor's office earlier contemplating the power of how painful a grain of debris could be, I instantly though of the pearl she found in the oyster and it was symbolic of our lives sometimes. We can let a small bump in the road of life get lodged into our existence and if it is not dealt with in the proper way it can fester and swell until we are paralyzed with pain and fear about his situation. On the other hand, if it is dealt with openly, honestly, and swiftly, it may still produce an irritation, but we may have produced a pearl in the process. So much of the "good and bad" in life is exactly what we make it be. I always say and try to live by the philosophy that everything happens for a reason, but I recently begin to rethink that a bit after reading a comment left on my last post by the amazing @lynncoyle1 which was :"Crap(substituted slang word...lol) happens, but the true test of our character is how we react to that storm". So now I'm leaning a bit more to the theory that "Everything happens for a reason and sometimes the reason is that crap happens." How we deal with it determines if we get a pearl or some pain. I hope she doesn't mind me using her quote.

Unfortunately, my wife lost the pearl when we got back to the rental home as she was attempting to show it to everyone. I think it must have disappeared into the baseboards.......crap happens!

^{The pearl that was lost in the baseboards.}

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All photos and videos are my own creation unless otherwise noted.

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Animation By @zord189

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All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
-Tolkien