Fixing the broken bell...

The broken bell
The handle of the brass bell had snapped off from the waist about ten years ago. The bell was left on a bookshelf, in a corner,  with the handle balancing to one side, one of the many things to fix.  No one really noticed it.
I am doing the annual cleaning so I move the bell and its broken handle , and think let me wash them.. with baking powder as recommended recently as a quick way to clean brass.

Wood glue on metal
I had bought wood glue to fix some of the wooden things in the house. I put some of the glue on the thin circles. My arms, hands and fingers are in some crisis these days as it seems carpel tunnel is a thing and my fingers don't always hold things.  hold the handle on the waist , try to balance. But the glue runs off and the handle doesn't seem to rest.  The bottle of wood glue says nothing about putting on metal.

I sigh.. I can't fix it. It is like so many other things at the moment.

The fix..
I wipe off the glue, and my fingers manage to hold the handle steady to find the balance position to leave the

I move it back to the shelf . My hands are shaking a bit and I am wondering how come the handle is not toppling over. 


It seems the glue has worked.  The bell will look good. Even if it might break if someone tries a whole musical score.


Why though?

I do not have the emotional intelligence to deal with the care giving duties. One patient is not recovering and it seems will be in perpetual discomfort, if not pain.  I am trying to manage energies so that I do not cause more problems for the patients. My hands are in use, doing new tasks, sometimes gloved, sometimes without gloves. I have to remember to keep washing them before attending, and then after attending.  I forget sometimes. The hands have never nurtured plants or anything like that and I wonder if the hands are not transferring the right energies to encourage the comfort of the patient in need of comfort.

Using the hands ..
I have to sort out my hands. I am reminded on the day of the broken bell as things slip out of the fingers, sometimes they jump. I am mindful as I hold the knife, and the pot to make sure they don't slip. It is a strange feeling, things done mindlessly before have to be done with some thought.

There is a discipline needed to have consistency and routine. Those seem jokey in a time of no routine and living each day as it comes.  I don't know why I never fixed the bell before, and why today.

I have rarely used my hands to fix anything -  typing on a keyboard does not count and  has probably caused some of the damage. 

Maybe fixing the bell would encourage me to try to fix myself and other things. Even if the fixes might not be strong.