May 2015

A few weeks ago I had a high speed mid-air collision with another woman on a basketball court. I landed badly and ruptured two ligaments on my right knee. After my left knee’s fracture last year, being back in a knee brace I’m looking ahead to months of rehabilitation and surgery beyond my present low mobility. I’m scared about fitness and future prospects for tramping.

A friend in Auckland invited me to go beyond the pain of now and reflect on the place of my knees in my whole life. Here’s an ode to my knees:

You knobbly, mid points between my belly and the ground
rarely noticed, you just quietly go about your job
keeping me on my feet and getting me to the next place.
Have I ever stopped to tell you
how much my life’s happiness and functionality
rely on your quietly and humbly doing your job?
It is time for you to get some air-time
and notice
and even a bouquet.

You two knees
for the last several decades
have smoothly bent and straightened
supporting me silently through the mundane tasks of daily life:
to get me out of bed each morning
to get me to the floor to play with my babies
to stand me back up again to cook the dinner
to pedal me on my bicycle to work
to walk me down the road to buy vegetables
to saunter me through bush with a backpack
to grittily kneel on an old wooden pew for prayer.
Every day, faithfully, you have brought me back home again
walked me up the stairs and gently bent and lowered me back into bed.

You two knees
have supported me silently in moments of intrepid action too -
kept me standing as I led my first workshop in Hindi
stalwart as I discussed strategies for child survival.
You kept me upright on many days tramping on treacherous ground,
crossing glaciers, fast rivers and high peaks.
But the only times you were noticed
were those blips of knee injury and distress.

I see the scar on Knee Left from a hockey stick attack on a high school field.
And poor old Left Patella - broken twice in cycle accidents
aged 15 and 45 years.
So of course Left Knee is pretty clunky now but
chugging along trying to be dutiful
getting me from here to there.
Now Knee Right always strong and slick
has her time of distress.
You need special exercises and supports.
Time for healing.