Functional Hands and Green Tomatoes

A BIT OF GRACE

Have you ever considered how important it is for your hands to function? Or do you just assume they're going to just keep on working exactly as they have? You may be lucky and yours have always worked well, but until recently mine were fine. I learned a lesson a few years back.
It started in childhood when I was riding horses English style. In riding school every summer, competing in horse shows and equitation classes and the sort. Where there are strict rules about how your wrists are, where your wrists are. You're holding the reins a certain way between your fingers. Not to mention all of the pulling a horse can do, especially if they get skittish or something like that. There was a lot of pulling over the years with my hands and wrists.
The next challenge time? Well, I also did a lot of crafts too, knitting and sewing along the way, and always cooking. The next challenge I know where I really put them through a lot was in college, Crafts and Design. I was doing mainly pottery, which involved at times mixing up one hundred pounds of clay at least. Shoving around big chunks of clay, you had to wedge it to prep it for working with the clay on the on the wheel or wherever.
I remember at the end of the day, if I'd been throwing on the wheel. That could be even up to 40 pounds of clay, shoving so hard with my wrists and hands. When I was this slim twenty something woman with hardly any muscles in my arms. I was really forcing my wrists and hands to take the load. This went on for three years. I remember at the end of the day, if I was throwing all day. I'd come home and my hands would be just aching from being in that cold water back and forth, working away.
Then let's go forward to more recent years where I suddenly found myself having a really tough time using my hands. It hurt to hold a pen, to hold a mouse, on the computer I was really struggling and cooking. I couldn't even stir or chop or lift a pot. To put my hand, my arm through a sleeve, was painful. Everything was causing this intense sharp pain to go up my arm. Mainly from my wrist and thumb, let's just fill you in on that little detail. Anyway, this was a big problem and it's taken a long time to fully heal.
I am so grateful at this point to be regaining that function in my hands and strength in my hands and to be hardly ever in pain, only if I overdo it. It has taught me a lot, that we have to be grateful for what we have.
Now in recent times, one of my fun things I wanted to share was that I've been getting back to trying new recipes. Which used to be a favourite thing of mine, to take on that challenge. Sometimes there'd be hits and sometimes there would be misses, trying out new recipes.
In the last week we were emptying out the garden of the tomato plants. My husband presented me with this box of little tiny green tomatoes. I thought "Well, I'll see what I can find on the Internet" and I found this recipe for Green Tomato Cake. I'd never heard of it and I thought "All right, let's see what happens with this". I made the cake the other night and it was really good! It turned out to be excellent, really moist, not very sweet. I'll put the link to the recipe in the text below the podcast here for you if you're interested. The only substitutes I did was the nuts. I switched them to sliced almonds and the coconut. I made sure it was unsweetened, because I don't like things too sweet.
Anyway, we've been enjoying that and I just wanted to share that a small thing can be very big, like the hands that you take for granted. Don't take them for granted. Be grateful that they work for you. Be grateful for the little things in your life that are going smoothly and operating well. If we can't have gratitude for the little things, how can we expect to see more available to us. How can we be ready to receive more, if we're just assuming and expecting everything to be right there for us? I'm just suggesting you take a look at what's in your life now and be grateful for that.

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The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice.

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