My Finger Might Be Broken

The day was especially hot in deep south, Texas. The considerable heat was not unusual for August in the Valley but this day was really, really hot!

After work, I decided to go for a refreshing swim in our backyard pool. Walking outside I noticed my beautiful wife and her niece sitting on the steps of the pool. They obviously had the same idea as I.

After I gave my wife a kiss and said hello to her niece, I dove in.

My routine was to dive in the shallow end and swim underwater to the deep end, touch the end of the pool with my hands and swim back to the shallow end. This exercise provided me the opportunity to cool off more quickly since I swam underwater the entire way.

When I approached the deep end of the pool and reached out with my left hand to touch it so I could reverse my course, I heard a strange cracking sound and felt a unique sensation. Feeling something wasn't right I surfaced and looked at my now disfigured finger, I feared, that my finger might be broken. My finger was dislocated. So without thinking, I grabbed the end and pulled! The finger popped back into place with minimum discomfort and immediately began to swell.  So as a precaution, I took my wedding ring off and as it turned out, that was a very good idea. My finger continued to swell and if I had left the ring on we would have been in the emergency room with a doctor handling a metal cutting tool that was designed for much larger industrial projects.

After the finger healed, the knuckle was disfigured to the extent that my wedding ring would not fit.

Considerable time passed and the knuckle refused to return to its normal size.

I was talking to my wife about the continuing condition of my disfigured knuckle and said I was tired of waiting on my finger to heal so I could wear my wedding ring and we needed to get me one that fit, even if it was going to rattle around because of the size of my abnormal knuckle. She decided I should give my old ring a try to see how far off we were from it going over the knuckle. With a bit of convincing, the ring fit!

My wedding ring is very important to me because it is a visual sign of my commitment. I have always been deeply committed, but the ring represented a visual reminder to me, my wife and the world.

Making commitments is easy, keeping commitments takes dedication. When you make a commitment, create a visual reminder of that commitment. When you see the reminder, you will know that your commitment is strong and requires your continuing dedication because commitments don't stick to people, people stick to them.