These Are A Few of My Difficult Things

I recently experienced a fracture in my right hand. I sat down before my puja [prayer] room and prayed to Baba to help me with strength, patience, forbearance, and healing. As I lay in my bed the next morning before greeting a new day, words came tumbling through my head and I sat to write them down, and I knew that I was prompted to do so. I set the words to the melody: “These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things.”

Cutting up salad and cooking the dinner
Peeling an orange and squeezing a lemon
Using my left hand seems so very strange
These are a few of my difficult things.

Buttoning buttons and pulling up stockings
Tying a shoelace and zipping a zipper
Frustration sets in and soon I despair
These are a few of my difficult things.

When the phone rings, when my friends bring
Words of love and cheer
I simply remember the lessons I’ve had
And then I don’t feel so bad…

Signing a check and jotting a note down
It’s just enough to make my face frown
Using a kerchief to make an arm sling
These are a few of my difficult things.

Step into jackets, avoiding the zipper
Cutting the sleeve off to accommodate hand cast
It’s not ideal but I’m learning to cope
How can I possibly give up on hope

When I sit still, when my heart fills
With His love Divine
I simply remember the blessings I’ve had
And then I don’t feel so bad…

~Marilyn Widrow (from a right handed person)
New York, U.S.A