For the past week and a half now I have been enjoying the many comforts of my mother and stepfather's home. We live thousands of miles apart from each other, so our times spent together are very few, and far between. For the past dozen years I have had to settle for only a couple of visits to where they live, and one or two others at my home, usually for only a few days at most. I always planned on being near to them as they aged, so it has been difficult to say the least not having that happen as I'd liked. Such is life.
This past year however, for various reasons, I have had the pleasure of spending much more time with them, in both places, than in the years since they moved away. This winter in Minnesota, and in many other states as well, the weather has been particularly brutal. For the most part, I was handling the severe harshness of mother nature pretty well, until about mid-January. The temperatures were going below zero for days on end, the snow was piling up higher and higher, and driving and walking anywhere was becoming a task too difficult to handle. In one fell swoop, not many days after two real fell swoops on the ice, I reached my breaking point. I called my mother, asked her if her spare bedroom was still open, and booked a flight to sunny Florida. It took a bit of work to arrange things for my children and other minor events on the calendar, but I didn't waste any time. Neither did I think for one moment that I could only afford to get away for just a few days. I knew that I couldn't afford to be away for anything much less than a month!
So, here I am. It is the 18th of February, and today I bathed in the sun several times, went for a motorcycle ride with my uncle along the ocean waters of the Gulf of Mexico, ate lunch on the patio, and watered the garden I planted yesterday. That was all after a long morning walk with my dog Lucky, who is equally happy to be able to go outside and not freeze his paws (nor any other part for that matter)! My folks are out for the evening to a Lions Club meeting, and I decided to stay here and share with you some thoughts that have been rolling around in my head these past few days.
When it comes to managing chronic pain, I have tried many different things to help ease the suffering. Some have worked well, at least for a while, and others have helped a little, but at least consistently. One of those things, which has been at the top of the list since embarking on this journey, is heat. I have found that when I apply heat to the parts that are most painful, I can breathe a tiny bit easier. It is like putting a cold pat of butter on a piece of hot toast....it melts. The heat can come from a heated gel pack, a heated blanket, a heated pool, a heat lamp, and the heat of the sun. It doesn't matter, just so long as it is heat. Needless to say, as anyone would attest, cold, especially severe and prolonged cold, is not exactly pleasant. It can be tolerated for a while, especially when you find ways to "enjoy" it, even if only for short bits at a time. But after a length of time such as we've endured this year, it becomes more than just a nuisance, it becomes unbearable. Pain, at least the kind of pain I have, is magnified in cold, and in prolonged and extreme cold, is simply more than I can stand.
The moment I land at the Florida airport, and leave the plane, my body knows that something is about to be very different. Like the cold butter on the hot toast, it begins to soften. Then, as I make my way to the exit doors of the terminal, it softens even more, in anticipation of what is about to come. Even in the air conditioned halls, it can sense that something wonderful is about to happen. When I open the door, and step out into the lush, fresh, tropical air, my body as if in surrender, soaks in the sudden rush of warmth, and melts. Almost suddenly, the pain, at least my interpretation of it, is lessened, and I can breathe again.
I know that my time here in this warm, safe haven will come to an end, and I will have to face the cold again. I am not looking forward to that in the least, but as the days approach, I will pull out another of the tools I have found to be effective, and put it to use. It is not a drug, nor any other form of medicine, yet highly effective when used "as prescribed". It is not complicated though some have made it out to be. On the list that hangs on my mother's refrigerator containing "10 Secrets to Active Aging", it is right smack in the middle.
LIVE IN THE MOMENT -- HERE AND NOW
I will enjoy every moment of my time here in Florida. The warmth, my parents, the walks on the beach... every single part of it. I cannot bring it back to Minnesota with me to help me get through what is left of winter. What will be then, will be, and what is now, is now. So right now, I am warm, and I am well. And as it is for each and every one of us, NOW is all any of us may have.
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