A philosophical way to come to terms with a life changing event

It is evident that we could face unforeseen, sudden and catastrophic changes to our lifestyles. The accident I had in January was one such event. At the time of the accident, I thought I was lucky to be alive. My vehicle was totaled, and I was concentrating on recovery and back to work in a few months. Alas it was not to be.

In the middle of my pain, I had to spend to have the vehicle towed to Colombo, and expend a lot of energy doing paperwork, and filling out documents so that I could get the insurance claim. VIP on the spot was bull shit, due to the fact of my being injured and hospitalized. I was lucky to have the presence of mind to have someone call in the insurance agent to photo and document the vehicle. Even then they lost the details as the agent used the wrong license number to file. Anyway in the end I only received half the value of a replacement vehicle, which meant I would have to borrow the other half to get a vehicle to recommence my business. With all this going on I could hardly fight the Ministry of Justice for justice for me.

I then lost the job I was doing at the stock brokerage to supplement my farming, and when my recovery took an inexplicably long time, I had to contend with the shock of being told, the bone was not healing and that I would require a bone graft which I had at the end of July. It was apparent then that I was out for the count for months more. An additional cut to take bone from the hip and insert into the leg after scraping out tissue that had formed since the original operation meant it was another 6 months. So a whole year of having to be on crutches and not being able to walk or do anything much was a scary thought. I had expenses and no income.

I had to dip into the insurance proceeds to cover the day to day expenses, until I got the offer of this job and started working. It is amazing how much a job can increase one’s outlook and forget about one’s disability. There is so much to do every day, and technically it is a job with no holiday, as the work and expectations never end, it is one of dealing with human beings and their problems and needs. I therefore am of the belief that I was meant to stop what I was doing, as the pace of my work growing, managing, driving and delivering was too taxing on my body. People less than half my age could not handle this even though I was doing it.

The main thing is, I am enjoying this aspect of social work, as we are always trying to look for good people to delegate different tasks. They are hard to find. We also fire fight, like yesterday when I arranged publicity in the press within a few hours, the sudden loss of jobs of 500 people with no notice. In the coming week I will try to assist them in arbitrating some form of redress, so they are not made destitute.