Pain
The Sunday Morning Church of ATTENTION
Pain
Ooh, Ouch, Owie! I taught my son, now owner of TIMBERLINE PT, a physical therapist, how to make those childhood cuts and bruises ease with ‘PAIN-BE-GONE.’ The cure-all for owies. It is a way to make the crying stop and healing begin. I would put my hand over the owie, breath healing into my hand and with maximum love and compassion send the pain devils away and bring the white light of healing with each breath. He and I synchronized our breath and voila it was all better. Still works on the grandkids but, I am only getting temporary relief from my gout.
“Gout, isn’t that the rich man’s disease?” said one of my friend.
At first that felt like I was being punished, even condemned, for my rich life style. I could feel myself heading toward resenting the remark when I realized I AM RICH, and began counting my blessings. King Midas does not have all the gold I have in my treasury. (My treasury will be a future Church of Attention)
One of my treasures is curiosity and it’s well developed cousin, interest, as in‘that’s interesting, how does that work?’
I have been ruminating over the source of gout, got great info on uric acid, rebalancing the system, wonders of cherry juice, the evils of alcohol, yeast, and asparagus-you can smell the purines which turn to uric acids. I have developed a new diet, and am becoming alkaline, got a great Chinese Medicine Doctor, Teresa Shen of EASTERN MEDICAL CENTER, but the pain, though no longer dehabilitating is discomforting and is addictive, easy to identify with and impairs creativity, energy and fun. I feel the phrase-bored to death. Yet pain is the muse in creating this Sunday morning topic.
Being a wordsmith I like to source words. I use Shipley’s Dictionary of Word Origin and found pain has a Latin charge to it. “The word pain shows the olden belief that our troubles are the result of our sins; we pay the penalty.” Pain has relatives that ‘pine’, pay ‘penance’, become penitent, are placed in penitentiary where one may repent.’
Referencing my own internal encyclopedia there are two phrases I have often used relating to pain- “People do not make changes without pain,” and a corollary, “Where do you go to create change without pain?”*
The doctors, literature, friends and my experiences are that the pain goes away. I return to normality, back to Zumba, Step Class & beloved NIA classes. I’ll be back in the garden and add more lattice around the deck and have more fun. My last episode, 2008, I started getting relief when I looked at the positive intent of gout, and then became the intents friend.
Slow down. Spend YIN time. Take a nap. Put your foot up. Really, really build that appreciation muscle, because with our treasures there is no need for health insurance to change health care, the funds are in the treasury under appreciation and willingness to change.
Namaste Gary
*Take a shower, get a massage, get your hair done, and/or ask for help.*