The Light Warrior has spent the last month having an up-close-and-personal experience of Unforeseen Consequences. Having survived a gruelling year of cancer treatment, the Light Warrior was extremely invested in getting some elective surgery done that would allow them to walk pain free, and eventually once both feet had been reconstructed, without crutches.

At first the surgery had been scheduled for immediately after their cancer treatment finished. Then, extremely disappointingly for them, it was postponed due to an emergency surgery that had to take place instead. The Light Warrior was gutted at the time but now, some months later, with the 20:20 of hindsight, they are enormously grateful that the surgery had not taken place then because they would not have been ready.

The Light Warrior realises this because even after they had the surgery they realised that they were not really ready and had it been done earlier they would have been even more under-prepared.

The Light Warrior had conveniently and so quickly forgotten that while they were experiencing their cancer treatment they were being cared for (extremely well) by their dear friend the Grumpy Bear. Whereas this time while getting better they were doing it by themselves.

Even though the Light Warrior wanted to use the time of enforced downtime to promote their new line of Japanese/Chinese Astrology T-shirts (depicting origami graphics of the 12 animals of the Japanese/Chinese zodiac) they found themselves too unwell in mind, body and spirit to do so. There is always next lunar new year.

The most important lesson that the Light Warrior has learned from the whole experience is to be kinder to themselves. Most particularly when they are in ‘recovery’ mode and the remembrance that you can never be too kind to yourself.