Kid in a Candy Store

On the way back from the chiropractor today, I stopped in at my favorite natural food store and started throwing things in the cart, like superfood chocolate and grain free cookies, almond flour stone ground crackers, organic gluten and grain free granola, small packets of organic almond and cashew butter, fresh and locally-made stuffed grape leaves and tabbouleh for dinner.

I woke up this morning with a wicked headache and had to work the day with it before I could get to the chiropractor for an adjustment. The minute he got the right misalignment back in place, there was immediate relief. It's got me thinking about alignment and adjustment in a wider sense. 

I don't know that I have much to say about it today, but it feels like a seed has been planted in the soil of my thinking. The pain in my back and neck have flared again. I had just enough time to get to the chiropractor and back and grab a quick dinner before another almost four hours of work in the evening, which included a Zoom meeting, phone calls, and work at my laptop.

Alignment. Adjustment. Needing to show up even when it would be better for my body to rest. 

I'm not the only person to contend with this, but I am the only person who can contend with my own life, health, and body. 

Alignment. Adjustment.

This writing has gone in a different direction than I thought it would. It was interrupted by a 90-minute phone call. Serious conversation penetrated my lighthearted writing about a few moments of fun and self-indulgence in the middle of a difficult and demanding day that was wrapped in a migraine.

There are lessons in such a day.

Still, I think back to the 20 minutes of a kind of Supermarket Sweep in a natural food store that had me feeling like a kid in a candy store. Makes me smile as I think about winding down and making my way to bed. 

Creating Space: Three Months of Showing Up for What's Showing Up is a daily writing practice. Turns out  that a lot of this writing explores the landscape of grief. My mother died shortly before I  began this writing, and this is what I'm thinking about most of the time these days.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.