A Painful but Valuable Lesson

During my busy last week, full of travel and events, there was one thing I was not very thankful for. I spent the entire weekend with a painful back that made extended sitting, driving, walking and heavy lifting difficult, though bearable. What made it worse, was that I could blame no one for this visitation but myself. My back pain is almost always manageable with a regimen of regular exercise and, when things get out of whack, a visit to my chiropractor. The pain began last Friday morning and I knew a visit was probably needed. Friday, like most days, was intense, There were the usual obligations of meetings, calls from faculty and students requiring immediate attention, a full ‘to do’ list and the day’s email Tsunami of emails. As the day progressed, I convinced myself that the pain wasn’t all that bad and would probably go away with a night’s rest.

It didn’t, and that error in judgment has exacted a price for more than a week. No matter how full one’s schedule, no matter how ‘important’ one’s obligations, there are certain maintenance tasks to which one must attend. Among them are backing up one’s computer hard disk, regular exercise, healthy eating, taking time for prayer and meditation and attending to signals – usually pain – from one’s body that all is not well.

A price will be exacted, for neglecting these maintenance tasks and signals, sooner or later.

Last week, I was reminded of this with a painful, but valuable lesson.;