Fatigue can be a bliss

Fatigue Is My Bliss

There used to be a time when exercise, hard work and especially running were normal daily functions. Being late meant you had to run, and muscles were there to lift. A full day was followed by a full night’s sleep when the only concern would be waking up in time for another busy day. For several decades, I went through life without thinking of my body and nothing could be further from my mind than the possible toll such activities might take on me.

As I go about the heroic tasks of each day, e.g. washing dishes, doing the bed, or taking a shower, each move reminds me that I am a champion. Did I have the same feedback when I single-handedly dug a new flowerbed in the garden, moved furniture and carried my not-too-skinny babies up the stairs? Did I know what a great job I was doing when I cooked seven course meals for a crowd of more than fifty, not to mention serving, and the cleaned up? Did anyone acknowledge the fact that what I did was way beyond human capacity and that God had created these hands for manicure and not for pealing eggplants? With no medal in sight, I’d like to see the Olympic runners try and keep up with a two year old, yet I ran around for decades and now looking back. . . well, let’s not, that hurts my neck.

I’d love to do a survey of people under thirty and ask them how many times a day the thought of “spine” crosses their minds. Yes, the spine, those little bones that I now need to consult before bending to pat the dog. But I'll bet, with education being what it is, I may hear something in the lines of, “I’d really love to see Barcelona!”

And yet, it is your spine that is going to hold you upright-or not- for the rest of your life. I mean, you call your roommate to ask if you could borrow their hair dryer, yet in an attempt to lift Mount Rushmore, you carelessly tear the ligaments that are the rightful belongings of these little guys without their consent?

It takes decades for our body parts to learn their rights. Yesterday I asked my eyes if they would please read the small print on my prescribed medicine and you should have heard them laughing! Oh, we have so much fun these days, my body parts and I. But I treat them well, talk to them when I rest, ice them when they hurt and give them soothing baths. I even scrub my feet, well, maybe not all their sides, just the parts I can reach.

Fatigue can indeed be a bliss. When you need hospitalization after making dinner for two, when a cup of coffee becomes your sleeping medicine, when an excursion involves getting dressed, driving the distance, buying the ticket and going to the movies, then you and your body are having a new adventure each and every day.

I just drove two whole hours from LA and boy, am I exhausted. By just, I mean last night, but it’s going to take a few days before I’m over my car-lag. I’ll rest a bit now, right after going down to the floor to pick up the pen I dropped an hour ago. And, while I’m down there, I'm going to look around and see if there’s more work to be done before coming up. Is that a card from last Christmas I see in the corner or did I at some point forget a sandwich?