Pain Free

In getting up from the sofa to come to the computer and begin to write, I realized that the pain in my legs that I usually experience in that process, wasn't there. I had had an easy night, too, flipping over from side to side without having to gingerly push my body with aching leg muscles. I had walked up the stairs and hardly noticed the effort. For the last 15 hours, I have been pain free.

What a gift! Medicine is the tool, but God is the one who gives me the grace to be grateful for the respite. To those of us who have had a broken bone and been unable to use a limb, its eventual healing makes the miracle of motion very obvious. To me, to be able to put one foot in front of the other without noticing the effort makes me aware of how amazing locomotion actually is. Maybe it takes absence to notice presence and be grateful for it.

There is so much about living - the way we move and breathe and exist; about our relationships - the way we communicate and love and feel empathy; about our experiences in society - the way we interact as cultures, genders and age groups, that I have taken for granted. Today, I won't.