kind of a miracle

Something really cool happened to me yesterday; I may have been subjected to a miracle.

Here's what happened. I was talking to my sister, Lisa, on the phone about the pain stabbing me underneath the scapula, which showed up Friday morning as I innocently flat ironed my hair. I've had that exact pain before and it always takes weeks, if not months, to jigger its way out, so I was mentally bracing myself to be a toughie for the duration. Anyhow, Lisa is a physical therapy assistant in a hospital, so she knows about pain, body mechanics, and such like. She is my medical guru. I told her my shoulder problem may have been from the side planks I did on Thursday night. She agreed, giving me sympathetic comments. We hung up, and I headed to my room to lie on a heating pad.

Ten minutes later, she calls back, saying she was praying for God to give her an idea about how to help me. Boom, Zappa, into her mind pops a specific exercise involving a broom handle and overhead maneuvers. She then realized this exercise is the exact countermeasure to the compression involved in the evil side plank. Of course, I immediately grabbed my broom and started lifting, ever so carefully. The pain eased a bit. Rest and repeat. More easing. Before bed, I repeated it again, and today - wallah - no pain. I am so incredibly thankful. Thank you, God! Once you've been in pain, absence of pain seems like an exciting holiday. Lisa is my angel.

It is amazing how life is like a web weaving us all together to hold each other up. That's all, except for this poem which I found lurking around in my brain this weekend. Tomorrow is craft day. I will show you how to make an interesting bracelet out of buttons. Goodbye, friend.

Etching

Layers,

layers,
endless
layers
flake and
fall, flake
and fall,
each
scratch
unveiling
me writ
large in
white
stacked
bones.