Recovering from injury and illness - with gardening

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As a tough guy, I think it's always puzzled people why I love to be in the garden. But it's my favorite place to be when recovering from injury and illness, which I've done quite a lot of in a long life.

Yes, I have a workout room. I train every day, and consider it a part of who I am. As Phillip Marlowe might say, "I'm six feet of raw leather, with hard muscles, and no glass jaw." But even the toughest guys get hit with illness and injury, and have to find a place to return. Mine is the garden.

I'm recovering from the flu this morning and I did a bit of trimming. That means that I'm up on my wobbly feet, doing a tiny bit of reaching and stretching. And if you could see my garden, you'd see how much time I've spent there in recovery.

Gardening is my basic physical therapy. And it starts with the most gentle stuff, like what I was barely able to do this morning, to more energetic stuff, like moving heavy rocks (which will have to wait a while!). Getting out into the sunshine is wonderful after you've been in bed for days, and no one has to tell me to bend my knees a bit and stretch my back gently - I'm gardening.

If people ask me about my various interests, it can seem a wide variety. But the reality is that it all folds together for me. So if you'll excuse me, I'll go do something that only a tough guy like me can do, I'll trim the petunias.

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