Under Pressure

I snuck away from my desk for an hour this a.m. to see my massage therapist. I went on a whim to see him for the first time maybe six months ago because I had an afternoon free and he had a cancellation. Nothing wrong, per se, just stressed and in need of a massage. I've been back a few more times for the same pseudo-reason. More indulgence than medical. Or more mentally restorative than physically therapeutic.

Today, different story. I've had what I thought was a pinched nerve in my upper back. I've also been unable to breathe for a few weeks due to my "chest pains" which I attributed to stress. Apparently, they're both related with one compensating for the other. The primary back/shoulder issue is what he called "anterior scapular rotation." (Or something like that!)

So instead of a full massage, he focused on applying pressure to specific areas affecting my range of motion and ability to breathe. All upper body: chest, ribs, neck, shoulder blades, upper back. Long, burning pressure combined with slow arm movement until the fire subsided. New area, one cm away, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm probably going to be pretty darned sore tonight but I'll tell you one thing: I can already take a deep breath. Cannot wait to be back to "normal." There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

We Are the Champions -- My Friends

You know how sometimes you don't understand the gift(s) that life is giving you until everything falls into place and you look back and think "Ah, now I understand why I tripped over that hole in the sidewalk and spilled coffee on my sweater and had to go to the dry cleaner where I ran into Stella and heard about her car woes and then we realized with her mechanical abilities and my tremendous ideation capabilities that together we had the perfect solution for an all new flux capacitor"?

Well, that's exactly how I felt when I realized that, in addition to heaps of love, my kids have been preparing me to compete in something far greater in life than I could ever have imagined.

Color me inspired and awestruck. I'm already visualizing the "world champion 2008" headlines.

No time for losers.