It's Lifting Me Up

I put out my back yesterday. It was school drop-off. I had just said goodbye to Stella. I bent down to pick up Hugo and help him out the door, when something in my lower back snapped. I couldn't move. My eyes went black, my mind flashing in panic. How would I stand up? How would I get down the elevator? The escalator? How would I get home?? How would I get through the next minute of pain? The next hour? The day? WHAT ON EARTH WOULD I DO WHEN HUGO POOPED??!! 

I couldn't stand. I couldn't think straight. I couldn't figure out what to do. I stayed like that on the floor, panicked and trying to formulate a plan, until I could pull myself back upright. Hugo gave me his hand, and we went to find the one and only school mum with whom I'm friends. She walked Hugo into the elevator. She carried Hugo down the escalator. She strapped him into his stroller and walked me home. I was too sore to even fathom getting into a taxi.

I was so sore I could hardly stand, let alone take care of a toddler. I called my friend and she sent her housekeeper over to look after Hugo. An other friend came over to take me to the Chiropractor, knowing what a trial it is to confront a painful walk all alone, how difficult it is to face new people when you are wincing in pain. She sat with me while the Chiro worked on me, and then walked me home again.

My friend's housekeeper served me lunch on the floor, knowing that I could hardly move to get up to the table. 

My friend came over with her daughter after lunch to be with me and to provide an entertaining distraction to Hugo.

Someone picked up Stella. Someone fed the kid's dinner. Papi came home to put them to bed. 

I stayed splayed out on the floor, binge watching The Good Wife while icing my back.

And though I was in incredible pain, I was really thankful, almost joyful. Because what a gift it is to have all of these people around me, all of these people who willingly gave their time and attention and love to help me when I couldn't help myself. 

You know, living so far from home as we do, we often feel vulnerable to the banal emergencies of life. Who would we call if we fall sick or break a leg or contract dengue? Our family and perhaps life-long friends really, are the one's we could call, the ones who we know would disrupt their day to help us. But our mothers, our sisters, our cousins, our best friends, they are not just down the street, or in the next town, or even a short flight away. They are oceans and continents and days away from us. 

This is a fear that lives somewhere in the back of my brain. Especially when we're newly arrived in a city.

But yesterday I had so many people around me, so many people willing to give hours of time to me and my kids. I felt my people around me and that was amazing. I'm not one to talk about blessings, but this surely is one.