30
well
it was rather auspicious:
on the eve of a new year, while holed-up
at a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery
Life
knee-capped
Itself
she-who-scribbles
was brought to her knees
crippled, dis-abled, humbled
the scene was set:
she could only sit
and sit, and sit and sit
with now, with this, with here
and one day the ‘with’ disappeared
~
echoes from emptiness 
the ‘with’ disappeared – very good; but, I’m dying to know, what knee-capped you, was it just being in the isolated monastery; after the ‘with’ disappeared, were you wholed-up?
OK, story time: 30 years earlier there had been an accident in Greece. Right leg was severed below the knee and stitched back together again. Knee was plaster-bound for a year; atrophied. Yoga got me walking again, but knee was a bomb waiting to explode. The rocky steps at the monastery … boom.
It was probably the only way this tear-about woman would stop long enough to … do what was necessary. i.e. sit down, shut up, stay. Looking back I am awed at Life’s choreography. What a set-up!
Wholed-up? (Love that.) Well, I could say there were/are no longer any loose bits of the old girl crying for attention – or enlightenment.
I am so sorry; I seemed to have missed this comment back in July! Nevertheless your story made me cringe still … COMPLETELY severed?
Thanks for your note M – it all seems like another dream-life now. Yes, technically the leg was severed; there was just a sliver of calf muscle from which, when I initially tried to stand up, the lower leg dangled. Woops!
It was a long road back to normal mobility, but thanks to the miracles of modern medicine (bone and skin grafts etc) all’s well. Arthritis tickles the wounds a bit as the old girl ages…
Cheers!