Pinched nerve…

One day Babba Zarrah noticed there was a hole in Nikolai’s shoe…

When the children left, she decided to knit Nikolai some nice warm socks…

But so much snow had fallen that winter that no one could get through to the village to deliver wool yarn…

How could she knit warm socks without wool???

“Every question has an answer,” said Babba Zarrah.

“I just have to think of it.”

She poured herself a glass of sweet tea to help her think…

Before she had taken three sips, Babba Zarrah knew what to do…

— in The Story Blanket by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz

I woke up to the sound of City of Vancouver garbage trucks this morning…

Then I got up to start the day,

with some pruning of the contorted filbert in my small front garden…

I had to twist myself in and out of the trunk to get at the suckers that were growing strong towards the south,

reaching for sunshine,

like a one woman Cirque du Soliel act in overalls…

I notice that when I’m in my front garden all sorts of people crawl out of the woodwork,

with running commentary…

The man I bought my house from cursed by in a cloud of anger and outrage…

When I asked,

How are you???

he attempted to drag me into his thick Work Safe drama of civic duty,

fraud,

betrayal,

and corruption…

I had his number and refused to go there with him as I would have in the past,

drowning in a pool of another person’s side walk anxiety…

I suggested praying for a solution…

He looked at me as if I could use a good throttling and said,

I’m an atheist…

I said,

This isn’t about God…

it’s about talking to yourself…

He stormed off in a huff,

like I was a nut cracker or something…

I said silently,

Suit yourself…

I continued clipping away to my heart’s content,

singing Burton Cummings at low volume,

until a job well done…

Then I went to my little back garden to hack away at the mighty October blooming clematis,

which routinely engulfs the neighbour’s plum tree…

After some effort the right side of my lower back gave out…

I asked myself,

What do you need???

And then I listened,

laying right down on the warm bricks with my face in the sun,

laughing at my pain threshold…

Then I asked myself,

What do you want???

I looked up into the bright blue sky,

and saw the eagle circling high above…

An eagle taking a break from nest keeping,

down at the big park…

You and your heart shouldn't feel so far apart...

When I’m in pain of any kind I don’t self medicate the sensation away with over the counter drugs…

I consider myself lucky to be alive enough to feel it,

and remember that I’ve given birth two times at home,

on my own,

without any local anesthesia…

Secure in that knowledge and experience,

I take it like a man,

by applying some Arnica Montana to the affected area,

backing it up with a double dose remedy of 200c,

and calling it a night…