Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird.
--Langston Huges
Years ago I wrote a post about birding with disabilities after talking to a woman at Great Swamp who birded from her car because of her walking problems.
I think of her because now I can't drive.
Three weeks ago I fell in a field full of flowers when a bumble bee, perhaps thinking my red hat a flower, charged me. I reared back, lost my balance and went down on my butt and my left wrist. Luckily, my husband (MH) was within shouting distance. He got me to a bench, got help and was able to drive to me so I could get home to ice and painkillers.
 |
| (Margo D. Beller) |
What I thought was a sprain turned out to be a fracture. I will spare you the sequence of subsequent events. Now I have a cast on and while I can do a lot - such as type this post with two hands - I can't drive.
You learn pretty quickly how fast you lose your independence and have to depend on other people for basic things. But while I have been slowly improving and doing more, there is one thing I still can't do:
I can't go birding in the early morning during prime southbound migration weather.
MH, you see, is not an early riser if he can help it. He rises to take me to appointments if they are early but if there are no appointments he wants to rest his weary muscles that have been used more than they have been in years since my injury.
So my field of operations is limited. I can walk to the outer fringes of Greystone, or sit on the back patio, both with the Merlin app on to help me. When I hear a chip Merlin tells me is an American redstart, and then I see the black and orange male flitting around in a tree, I think of how many more birds I could see beyond the backyard jays, cardinals and woodpeckers if I could drive farther afield and stay out longer.
But, I have learned, MH has worried about me taking these long trips alone. My recent fall was within shouting distance of him. I've had other falls when he wasn't around. I could get up then. I might not be so lucky next time.
So I do what I can and wait for a day he'll feel up to driving me someplace and we'll walk and, with any luck, still find treasures, even after the cast comes off.
