Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “i before e.” Find a word that has an “i” before an “e” even if there’s a letter between them, and use it for your prompt word. Have fun!
I’m looking forward to relief from my back pain. Got a massage Wednesday which helped a little. The pain moved from the left to the right side and at least it’s not spasming on the right like it was on the left. The spasms are the worst. They’re like waves cresting with a knife twist. Mindfulness of the present moment, like in between the spasms, helps along with knowing that this too shall pass. I promise not to whine much more about it. I know from experience it will have run its course soon. Physical therapy has helped a lot in the past and I’ve been doing some of those PT exercises, but more stretching than the strength building. I went to yoga on Monday, a relatively easy class, and the spasms started Tuesday. Other than that, and not doing enough strengthening exercises, I don’t know what triggered this episode.
What we put into our minds can add stress to our bodies. As you may know, I’m a big fan of Star Trek and have been really enjoying a long ST novel Destiny that contains characters from Next Generation, Enterprise, Voyager, and Deep Space 9. I’m about halfway through and have especially enjoyed some of the metaphysical and philosophical parts of the storyline. But recently, two ships led by Picard and Dax (who is a captain in this novel) while looking for ways to stop the borg, were attacked by the huge, ruthless Hirogen. In the following clip, Chakotay explains Hirogen culture is all about hunting prey. You can skip the clip and take my word for it, that Hirogen are big bullies. But it you like Chakotay, who is easy on the eyes, here he is:
Anyway, the novel has turned quite violent in the battle scenes with the Hirogen bullies and is graphically violent in my brain’s images of what I have been reading. It’s very tense. Makes me wonder if reading a novel can be more intense than watching it on TV. I’ve wondered if reading these violent battle scenes involving blades, impalement, and blood, has contributed somehow to my back pain.
Somehow is the title of the other book I’m reading. It’s nonfiction by one of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott. It’s much easier to read and has little if any violence. Anne writes about love and relationships with a quirky kind of humor. So, I’m reading more Anne Lamott than the Star Trek novel and skipping or skimming the violent parts in ST. I’ve set a rule for now not to read this particular ST novel in bed, at least until my back is better, and I don’t have to read every single word of the up close and personal battle scenes. It’s easier to tolerate battle scenes between ships with phasers firing into space and not seeing the bloody gore. STOP!
I have too much imagination for my own good sometimes.
Well, the wind is howling here Friday morning in the NC foothills where we might possibly lose electricity from what is now Tropical Storm Helene. So, I’m going to stop and breathe and be thankful that I have more Anne Lamott books I can re-read.
(Update: We lost electricity from 11 am till 5pm. The repair guys worked hard for a couple hours cutting up a fallen tree and restoring cables to the transformer.)
Speaking of imagination, do you ever see dragons in the sky? These photos are from a couple weeks ago.
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