Monday, August 31, 2009

Lessons

Like most everyone I know, there are times that I eat too much or the wrong things. There are times when I overexert or I don't get enough sleep. Simply put, like the rest of you, there are times I don't take as good care of myself as I should and my body lets me know.

Each time something of this nature occurs, there is a lesson to be learned. Usually, the lesson is to cut back on my excesses and to center myself to find balance. As I've aged and matured, I don't have to keep relearning this lesson as often as in my youth. Ah, one sign of wisdom!

Unfortunately, being that I'm a person afflicted with Fibromyalgia and Klinefelter's Syndrome, there are many times when my body goes into revolt and there is no direct lesson involved. There's nothing I can do to ward off the pain and discomfort because it is an internal infirmity. I can follow all the dietary and exercise rules I've come to live by and yet the flare-ups still come whenever they feel like it.

Yet, while there isn't a direct lesson involved, every experience in life can teach each of us a thing or two, if we are open to learning. Out of my chronic pain, I think I've learned to be more compassionate. I don't necessarily show it very well because of my Asperger's, but I think I've learned the lesson, nonetheless.

I've also learned to think and contemplate the world around me more. When a person is feeling really raunchy a good deal of the time, you have a tendency to feel sorry for yourself. You can have excessive pity parties. I've been there. However, once I came to grips with the fact that I'm stuck with these infirmities for life and working a regular job is no longer in the cards, I realized that this freed up my time to become a philosopher of sorts -- to spend a lot of time pondering those fundamental questions that most people simply don't have the time nor energy to ponder.

And so, in many ways, this blog is made possible by my chronic pain. If it didn't have such a big hold on me, I would lead a more normal lifestyle and I would be far more busy which would mean less time to blog.

The big lesson for me is that pain and my weird neurological wiring have upsides as well as downsides. You're looking at one of the former. : )

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.