Physical (and Spiritual) Surgery

Just this past week I underwent surgery to remove the Pilonidal (pronounced pie-lon-i-dal) Disease from my rear. It's a terrible disease that is genetic and sits under the skin on the behind. It remains dormant until it becomes infected and while not life threatening, can be a real pain in the butt (pun intended). Mine had been infected for the past four months and looks somewhat like a boil. Kinda gross, I know. It was really uncomfortable and would often put me in a crummy mood and make me less charitable toward others. Anyway, I was put under and the doctor cut out the cysts and all roots and anything pertaining to the disease. He stitched up my gluteous with 10 stitches so now all I can do is stand, kneel or lay on my side or stomach. I would greatly appreciate some prayers for a quick healing because I also have to take some time off work, albeit against my will, because I can't sit.

Still, it has given me some time to think about how badly I needed this surgery and how we need spiritual surgery sometimes too. We need to purge ourselves of the bad habits, of the spiritual diseases that can slow us down or cause us to be less charitable. For me, Holy Week 2012 was that spiritual surgery. Truth be told, I didn't have the most spiritually advancing Lenten season. I got lazy with my sacrifices and even worse with my disciple to prayer. Still, I made new resolutions during Holy Week to really enter into the mystery of Christ's passion and death. And I felt like it worked, that sometimes we need to purge ourselves of...ourselves! Of those desires that bring us comfort, of the little things that cause us to hide in our daily routines, even of those things which may seem to bring us the most comfort but only hinder our spiritual growth. I was able to do that during Holy Week and now the Easter season is my joyful recovery of learning to live my life with the changes, all while I try to be joyful recovering from this surgery.

For obvious reasons, this post is one which lacks pictures. I would show you pictures butt...er...but that would be gross. So come on over and visit me and maybe I'll show you my stitches!