Almost recovered

Today it's been 6 weeks since I sliced my hand up. Six weeks during which I thought I'd have missed climbing as much as my left arm.
Apparantly not.
Psyche is a strange thing. Sometimes it is hard to not be climbing, training, or doing something towards the artbitrary goal I might set myself. If it's not kept in check it can become all consuming, like it's of utmost important to latch that crimp or complete the circuit, or whatever. In the scheme of things it's ridiculous really.

Then other times it just disappears, and becomes the most difficult thing to regain.
Unlike most things in life, for me, climbing, and more specifically bouldering gives so much in terms of satisfaction, but it also takes just as much.
Time away from home, away from family, away from other pursuits, hobbies, things that I loved to do, but got sidelined because of climbing. It's a sacrifice.
Over these past 6 weeks, strangely, I've really appreciated time away from climbing. Not being knackered when I get back from climbing however many times a week have meant that I've enjoyed my evenings more. Not going out on the weekends have meant that I've been able to spend more time with family and friends, and doing other stuff.

Maybe it's that I've simply not been able to do anything, so I've not felt like I'm missing anything as I can't do it anyway. Maybe it's that I've relised that there are more important things to life than the CRUSH. Maybe I've just handled the injury better than I thought i would. Or maybe I'm just going through one of those periodic phases in my climbing when I just needed a break.

This doesn't mean I'm giving up. Or even that I'm going to climb any less, necessarily. It also means that 7a is still the goal for the end of the year, and the ticklist stands. I think it does mean however, that sometimes it's nice to have a little perspective, and this injury has given me time to reflect on bouldering, or rather life other than bouldering for a bit.

Anyway, enough naval gazing.

I went to Brownstones twice last week, and was rained off twice. I think the hand is ready to be climbed on lightly, should the opportunity arise, as it's scarring up nicely. I'm sure it's not full strength yet, but it's getting there.
I'll try to get out this week to test it, and also get back on with the swimming, as the great North swim is only 3 weeks away.
On another note, the cherry wood that I put for seasoning last year is now in perfect carving condition. I took a log out yesterday, and despite being alarmed at the cracking near one end, it's only been affected at the tip - once this was cut off, the rest is in perfect condition.
An experiment from last year is also ready - I put some laburnum wood to season and it's now ready to carve. I've taken the sapwood off (very flakey) and the heart is very hard, but has a beautiful dark grain. It already feels ike it'll be a joy to carve. The hand is bearing up with the carving, but still quite tender if I'm cutting hardwood.
That reminds me, I really should buy a glove...

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