Well, it’s hit again…fibromyalgia.  my skin hurts, my joints hurt. I’m exhausted beyond reason. Did I eat the wrong thing or wear the wrong shoes?  Am I just a bad person by nature…oh wait.  That’s the wrong response.  Time to crawl into bed and take good care of myself.  No blaming.

Reading Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life:  How to Finally, Really Grow Up by James Hollis, Jungian Analyst, I find so much to help me understand myself.  One thing he says is “If our work does not support our soul, then the soul will exact its butcher’s bill elsewhere.”  Okay.  My bill is fibro.  What’s yours?  Maybe your work supports your soul?

Also, pertaining to suffering, and how I maybe shouldn’t wish it away out of hand, or reminding me of its value, he says:

In the midst of these psychological dislocations, we frequently consider ourselves victimized, and cannot imagine that there could be some enlarging purpose arising from our suffering.  Often, much later, we are able to recognize that something was moving us purposefully, initiating a new phase of our journey, though it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time.  We may grudgingly admit that even the suffering enlarged us, and made us more richly human.

So I’m going to crawl into bed and become “more richly human.”