Scheduling Conflicts

As an “expert” on my own chronic pain, I have discovered that it’s timing does not necessarily assimilate to my schedule. My discomfort has continuously failed to match my agenda. Today for instance, I thought it would be ideal for a little geocaching after church and breakfast. However, Mother Hubbard appears lavish to many of our cabinets, so a trip to the store demanded immediate attention. My body complained at the rigorous schedule, so we relinquished some rest time after breakfast. It’s now close to 8:00 PM and my poor Bobby is alone hobbling the grocery aisles.

I wonder what it would be like to examine my weekly schedule and notice that perhaps Wednesday had a lot of openings. I would be willing to “give up” that day to stay in bed with a good book and pain pills. I would already have stored nutritious items within arms reach. The gloomy weather could coincide. I would still manage to catch up with some emails and even pay a few bills. I could quietly slumber, victorious in my pain. I have a couple of hours on Thursday morning. Wake up! It doesn’t work like that.

First of all, Bob and I have chronic pain everyday. Yes, some days are better than others. Yesterday, he felt just plain awful and accomplished little except snores. He is doing better now. I doubt he is doing sprints down any grocery aisles, but he scribbled a short list prior to hitting the road. I’ll try to meet him at the door to throw a bag of perishables in the refrig before finding my spot on the couch. He’ll stumble to his seat and Einstein will paw through the remaining bags.

With fibromyalgia, the pain randomly travels throughout my body. Sometimes, it’s the arms that are throbbing, another it’s my legs, and today it’s the hips. I swear I should see spears of fire shooting out of my body. Why couldn’t this have been scheduled later in the day, month, year, decade or millennium. I could have been outside some today to enjoy some sunshine?

Then I realize that life doesn’t match my calendar. God’s time isn’t my time. I’m narcissistic enough to suddenly feel that my time should surpass that of God’s? What am I thinking? Unfortunately, I actually believe that nonsense but don’t tend to verbalize it very often. So now I admit my idiosyncrasies on the “world wide Internet.” I never said I was bright.

Benefits of My Chronic Pain:
- It quickly reduces my egotistical nature.