seeing straight

9" x  11"

there are lots of things that we take for granted every day of our lives.  we typically carry on in our own blissful ignorance, because worry never does anyone any good.  in my mind, worry can even encourage the worst.  i was thinking about this just the other day when i was talking to two girlfriends who suffered from repeated migraines.  they were saying how many triggers there are, but they didn't know what exactly caused their own migraines, perhaps an unusual combination of things, and just how helpless those headaches made them feel.  i was thanking my lucky stars for my own migraine-less-ness, and wishing i had some kind of snake oil for my ladies.  then, to my disdain, the next day i put my back out with a single misstep.  sciatica. i remembered.  my bane. suddenly it flashed through my mind: the first time it happened in high school, i went to dive for the volleyball, rolled wrong, and couldn't move, couldn't breathe, sharp sharp pain running down my leg.  since then, it's happened many times, and can stem from as many things as there are stars in the sky.

ironically, i was just out the door to a massage appointment when it happened.  i went from being footloose and fancy free, excited to relax and unwind to being, well, cramped up, cooped up, and crotchety.  it was so bad that the massage only temporarily alleviated the major discomfort.  i went to bed early, and i tried not to move.  today, i look like a pipe cleaner that just took a turn for the worse.  the lesson from all of this:  don't take it for granted.  any of it.