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This “exploration” began soon after I twisted around to reach something and 10 minutes later my lower back “froze up” … and ANY little or big movement was really painful!
I was so shocked and taken aback! I’ve never had any back problems and so this “back pain” and limitations to any bodily motions seemed bizarre! I couldn’t do most of my daily activities … not even tiny motions!
I was so stunned that until 10 minutes before that happened, I had been able to bend over, pick up an item, put on socks and shoes, wash dishes, sit down without pain, stand up without pain … etc etc etc
I had never realized how AMAZING it is
to be able to do even tiny motions during everyday activities!
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It occurred to me that I might be (or probably am) somewhat oblivious about how amazing so many aspects of my life are right now!
I’m probably not even noticing or appreciating that I “have” SO MANY MANY capacities, skills, competencies, strengths, options, opportunities, people, relationships and blessings “right here” in each moment!
And so … I got the “inspiration” to use this “frozen, back pain shock” to create a progression of “awareness-opening” questions and ideas to explore and maybe even progress toward deeper understandings about, greater insight into and appreciation of even the small-seeming, everyday “blessings” I’m living with each moment of my day!
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I started creating these explorations to help myself with the awarenesses … and I hope that some of my questions, reflections, ponderings and insights might also be helpful to anyone else who arrives here at “Pocket Perspectives”
A very full page of “explorations” of these “reasonings”
relating to this back-pain “incident”
Initially brainstormed as handwritten “explorations” and “investigations”
written and highlighted as I sat at our breakfast table
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And then, a few hours later…
I typed up those handwritten ideas …
so I could more easily read, reflect upon and refer to the ideas
(Wow! typing all of this up was hard!)
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Amazingly enough,
the next morning most of the back pain was gone!
Poof! … Gone!
I was sooooo thankful!
Several days later,
I wondered if some possibly “coyote /trickster” energies
may have set off and contributed to this back pain?
??? … “trickster energies” … ???
that seemed to have led to the deeper awarenesses and insights
arising out of this sudden “back-pain-challenge!”
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Relating to my reactions to this back pain: When my very active mother was 85 years old, she tripped on a small throw rug in her kitchen and took a “gentle fall” that resulted in a compression fracture of her back She was never able to walk pain-free for the rest of her life … she died at 97 years old … So that was 12 years of pain, forced inactivity and general immobility!
That probably set of my fears of how quickly “things” we “take for granted” can change!
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I continued these explorations by creating a “fill in the blanks page” to hopefully open to increasing my appreciative awareness about any simple everyday motions or capacities that I’m probably “taking for granted” … with the intention to become more consciously aware of and appreciative about whatever capacities I still do “have.”
BTW: I’m 77 years old … so “diminishing” of some capacities is already “arriving” …. and many more may be arriving. Therefore!… it’s even more important to me to appreciate whatever “valued capacities” I “still do have” and that are “still here”
My hope is that I can become more aware of “what I still have” … no matter what that might be … through exploring “contributing factors” relating to this experience.
Using ideas on this page to explore aspects of any obvious physical challenges as a springboard for exploring other possibly more subtle or less obvious valued aspects of our lives
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The even-more-full typed up page of those handwritten ideas …
so I could more easily read, reflect upon and refer to the ideas
(Wow! typing all of this really was soooo hard!)
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Breaking that long page of ideas into sections
emphasizing the very important ideas within several “parts” of the full page of notes
I’m doing this to support myself and anyone else
to learn to pause and reflect upon specific examples of the significance of each these ideas
in each of our own “everyday” lives
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Ah ha!
A combo page … that I printed, taped up on walls and am reflecting upon throughout any day!
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??? … Perhaps … ???
Could this have started with some type of “coyote/ trickster energies” … ???
leading to that sudden, bizarre-seeming, one day back pain and “immobility” …
possibly alerting me to vitally important questions and reflections relating to
“impermanence” …
the “fleeting nature” of every “thing” …
the arising, abiding and dissolving nature of everything …
And! …
increasingly noticing, valuing and appreciating what’s “still here”
while it’s still “here”
…
Throughout the past week, I’ve actually been imagining …
inviting and welcoming “muse energies” to come into my life
Thankfully! …
during and after that back pain,
there seemed to be an arrival of inspirations of “muse energies” ...
awakening surprising and completely unexpected
“muses” of … curiosity, inquiry, inspirations and “sleuthings”
that seem to be leading me along this “path of explorations”
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I’ll print out this vertical triple reminder page
and tape it up above the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, by the bed…
and anywhere else that I might benefit
from repeatedly reflecting upon these important reminders
“How wonderful it might be … if we could live these ideas”
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May each and every one of us
learn to increasingly notice, value, appreciate and be thankful for
whatever “it” might be
that we “still do have” in our lives
while “it’s” still here
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