You’ve probably noticed that I often talk about pain. At my age, it is normal to always feel pain somewhere on your body. Someone once said that if old people wake up in the morning and don’t feel any pain, it’s because they’re dead.

However, it has been worse lately. With all the freezing and unfreezing due to the yo-yo temperature around the zero-degree Celsius, we had lately (it seems after all that Groundhog Day should have predicted six more weeks of winter) there is often ice on the ground. The snow melt and then the water refreezes. It is most dangerous when it snows again. Last week, a fine layer of snow was covering some ice. I was careless. I was in a hurry. I was taking a short cut through the park near my work, and I slipped on a patch of ice hiding beneath the snow. I didn’t fall. It’s always worse when you don’t fall. I caught myself with a complex equilibrium movement, but my left foot was left behind in an awkward position and I twisted my ankle. It was quite painful for several days, but quickly diminished.

That accident must have unknowingly caused more injuries, because last weekend, when I was simply picking up a garbage bag on the floor, my back exploded in an electric shock of pain and I couldn’t walk straight anymore without excruciating pain. Since then I’ve been careful, put heat, taken anti-inflammatory & pain reliever as well as doing light exercise. Every day there was a slight improvement with less stiffness and easier movements, but it’s been a week now and I’m still not fully recovered and still in pain… I feel (and walk) like I’m eighty! I just need to be patient.

I also must learn to live with my pain. I’ve created this “litany against pain” (inspired by the Dune’s Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear): Pain is my friend. I will face my pain. I must not let the pain change the way I do things. I will use my pain to keep a clear mind. And when the pain has gone, I will remain active…

I can’t wait for spring and warmer weather when I can walk in the park without feeling stiff and pain being just an afterthought…