Apologies for not having posted last week, although with the busyness of this time of year you probably didn’t notice. I sustained a nasty shoulder injury a couple of weeks ago and spent most of last week in a fog of excruciating pain. One of those days was even more unpleasantly enhanced by an opiate painkiller daze. Coleridge might have written Kubla Khan on opium, but I ditched it after just 2 tablets!
The diagnosis was tendonitis. How could one tiny part of the body cause such agony and be so debilitating? I couldn’t move my left arm at all for several days, needing help to even do the basics like getting washed and dressed. Typing has been one-handed until a couple of days ago!
I found it frustrating that the only advice I was given was rest, painkillers and ice. How can that really be all you can do to encourage healing? As usual, I didn’t just accept that without checking it out more myself and found advice online about food and supplements that can help promote healing, as well as a fabulous aromatherapy massage oil blend to make. It was only when I started using heat and massage on my shoulder that I began to see any improvement. A hot bath was amazing too. Why wasn’t any of that suggested?
And not only that, but my full diagnosis wasn’t shared with me until I saw the hospital physio ten days later and she mentioned calcification in the tendon. Having looked it up, acute calcific tendonitis is exactly what I had. With that information I can now look after my shoulder properly and hopefully avoid any future flare-ups.
As I’ve mentioned before in regard to the news, I think it’s SO important to investigate and think about what you’re told rather than just accepting it. I want ALL the information I can get before making a decision or coming to a conclusion.
Words are powerful, whether we’re speaking them or hearing them. They can burn bridges or build them, crush or lift up, leave you in the dark or enlighten.
How often do we think about song lyrics when we sing along to them? At this time of year a lot of us will find Christmas carols on our lips. I LOVE carols. Personally I think most of them are full of amazing truth and hope.
“Mary, Did You Know?” is a fairly modern (25 years old!) Christmas song, that I only heard for the first time last year. It captures so perfectly the true heart of Christmas – not just the birth of a cute baby we can pat on the head and have warm fuzzy feelings about, but recognising all the incredible potential and life-story contained in that tiny being. It’s become my no.1 favourite, especially the version below by the amazing Pentatonix, which gives me the chills every time I hear it. Why not check it out and consider the lyrics as you listen? How do they fit with what you think about Jesus? How did you come to that opinion of him?
I’d love for 2017 to be a year where we all challenge ourselves to investigate and examine what we think and what we’re told, whether that’s about the news, a medical issue, God, a song lyric or anything and everything else! It’s important we know why we believe whatever we believe. Let’s not be passive receivers, but engaged analysers whenever possible.
My thinking on writing and the publishing industry has been significantly challenged this year. Having had big struggles with it for most of 2016, I’m feeling excited about the journey ahead in 2017! Happy Christmas and see you then 🙂
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Hi, I'm Mel (you figured that out already though, right?!) and this is where I chat about things that relate to and inspire my writing, as well as share some of it.