What comes around goes around

I’ve decided to start 2022 out with a devotional of sorts. In the sixth chapter of Galatians it says “for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Now, don’t get your shorts all in a wad. I’m not going to get caught up in linguistic semantics or start a fight over doctrinal differences. Be patient, and you’ll see where I’m going with this. Maybe.

Last month I had to doctor a steer. He had a abscess on his cheek about the size of a grapefruit. William and I got him in the chute and the fun for me began. It wasn’t hard yet, so I made a small incision and drained about a pint or so of goo out of it. I couldn’t find my forceps, so I soaked about two feet of gauze in iodine and stuffed it into the wound with my fingers. I turned to tell Will to shoot a little wound spray on it. I meant for him to coat it in wound spray, but he held the bottle out, about three feet away from the calf and shot a little out into space. He had turned an interesting shade of grey and said, “That smells really bad. I think I’m going to go sit down for a minute.”

I shouldn’t have teased him about it. I was about his age when the vet would make his antibiotic recommendations based on my reactions. He would hold whatever he drained from an animal and have me smell it. If I vomited, it got a full dose of LA 200, a simple gag equaled a reduced rate. If I didn’t have a reaction the animal apparently didn’t have an infection.

Fast forward to this week. Varsha got her wisdom teeth pulled. It was an adventure to say the least, and I won’t bore you, or make Varsha really, really, really, mad by sharing all of the details of her experience. To bring the story and lesson full circle though, my 20 year old daughter had to have dad hold her hand while Doc pulled her teeth. I was rather enjoying it, watching the shots and asking questions. It was fascinating when he started pulling them out. The bottom right one gave him some problems though. He wiggled and pried and drilled and twisted, but it was determined to stay in her mouth. He took an instrument that looked like a little stainless steel garden hoe and got it in under the roots to pry. I was right in there, taking it all in when, POP!!, the tooth broke in half.

I’m telling you it got HOT in that dentist office right now. I told the assistant that I didn’t think I needed my silk scarf anymore,…..or my vest,…….or my sweatshirt. Before I knew it, it looked like I had done a strip tease because I was just throwing stuff on the floor. I was hanging in there though, because Varsha wouldn’t let go of my hand any longer than it took me to take another layer off. Things were getting slightly hazy and I was much less talkative than I had been. I was fairly certain I was going to fall off my chair when fate intervened and Doc’s drill quit and the assistant had to go get a new one. It was just the break I needed to recover. A couple more minutes and I would have been mostly naked and passed out.

Once again, as in most of my stories, I kind of forgot where I was going with it. Well, be kind and show some grace and mercy to the people around you this year. It’s bound to be better than last.