A Healing Table: Allowing....Time
(Part ten in a series on finding simplicity when living with chronic pain/limits; the full series can be found here)
Last but not least in this area of simplcity with limits....there is the area of time. As in, having enough of it. Thats something that's important for everyone, but especially important when one lives with limits and pain. When we take our time, we are able to "hear" the needs of our body better and so do things more gently, and more ergonomically as well. This has a huge impact in minimizing flare ups...and conversely when we rush or push we maximize them really.
But its more than this too, it even affects what solutions we can find to get through the day. I think sharing the solutions we have found with each other like this, it truly does help. And that is how some of the ideas used everyday were found...what a blessing! But honestly, many other of the things shared here were found only becuase i allowed myself the time to let them be discovered hands on as i was simply going about things over time. It was becuase there was the time to notice problems, to put them on the back burner to ponder, and often eventually a solution would present itself. And this happens often not becuase of something we ourselves "do", but rather simply becuase we give ourselves the time and space to listen, listen to the Spirit. We all need this, so much! No two people are going to need the same exact set of solutions. And so while we can find some by sharing with each other, other solutions will need to be Spirit led...and that needs a quiet life, and time to listen. And that applies of course, to all areas of our life really.
(Part ten in a series on finding simplicity when living with chronic pain/limits; the full series can be found here)
Last but not least in this area of simplcity with limits....there is the area of time. As in, having enough of it. Thats something that's important for everyone, but especially important when one lives with limits and pain. When we take our time, we are able to "hear" the needs of our body better and so do things more gently, and more ergonomically as well. This has a huge impact in minimizing flare ups...and conversely when we rush or push we maximize them really.
But its more than this too, it even affects what solutions we can find to get through the day. I think sharing the solutions we have found with each other like this, it truly does help. And that is how some of the ideas used everyday were found...what a blessing! But honestly, many other of the things shared here were found only becuase i allowed myself the time to let them be discovered hands on as i was simply going about things over time. It was becuase there was the time to notice problems, to put them on the back burner to ponder, and often eventually a solution would present itself. And this happens often not becuase of something we ourselves "do", but rather simply becuase we give ourselves the time and space to listen, listen to the Spirit. We all need this, so much! No two people are going to need the same exact set of solutions. And so while we can find some by sharing with each other, other solutions will need to be Spirit led...and that needs a quiet life, and time to listen. And that applies of course, to all areas of our life really.
It is the nature, too, of keeping at home, to need to have.... time. A homemaker i feel, needs to have real time to listen, to really notice things...as the norm to our days, not the brief accent there. That is a real part of how a house becomes a home, and a real part of nurturing those we love, and even part of healing (responding to pain immediately rather than "later" is so critical in home medicine). It often really takes a spacious (rather than rushed or packed) sense of time in order to be femininely receptive i think.
And long before the bizzare notions of superficial "schedules", i suspect this is how our practical things got done at home too. A woman notices what needs to happen in the home as she goes about her day. Sometimes she makes a mental note and comes back to it, but often she simply does it then as it presents itself. That, anyway, is how i picture homelife for many of our ancestors. It is only our wounded and rushed sense of time i feel, that doesnt allow us to stop and do things needing to be done simply as they present themselves. We try to compress too much into our time rather than letting it simply be spacious and sacred as its given to us...a spaciousness and sacredness that allows us to listen, to be receptive, to respond. And so then we come to having to "schedule" things instead, rather than simply being present and receptive and getting things done that way. To me, that's a neon sign saying that something is very wrong, that time must become more spacious again. And this applies tenfold to those of us living with chronic pain and limits. Time means listening. Time means opening. Time means... healing....
(Image by Hans Thama)