Merit Badges

2021 was not my best year ever. But I ended it better than it started… and slowly my playfulness is returning.

I decided that if life was going to be this challenging and require this much work, I should at least have something to show for it. So I started earning Adulthood Merit Badges.

I made this sash full of merit badges earned through survival over the past 18 months. This was my outfit worn proudly on New Year’s Eve 2021. Kenny and I would like to describe the badges to you now, in order from top to bottom:

1. I fell down the stairs instigating the need to earn such badges
2. I had to crawl from the floor
3. to seek medical attention
4. because there was a fire in my bones.
5. I had to use alternate modes of transportation because my foot was useless after surgery.
6. I was NPO for a while, but once able to eat again…
7. there was significant opioid related constipation!
8. I lost my way for a time and needed help and hope to find it again.
9. I learned to use a scooter, walker, crutches, cane, and walking boot in my journey to walk again.
10. I had to borrow clothes that fit over my cast!
11. I grilled my surgeon and therapist about recovery and prognosis.
12. I had to look far
13. and near to find my direction, my new path, my goals after this ordeal.
14. I had to find my way home again.

As I said in the last post, life is bitter and life is sweet. The necessity to earn all these badges is bitter, but having friends truly celebrate my growth and recovery and fight for healing in physical, emotional, and spiritual planes alongside me is indeed sweet.

What merit badges could summarize 2021 for you?