Yesterday, I got a pinched nerve in my lower back, a pain many people experience, a condition commonly called sciatica.
After consulting with Anne's and my son Clayton, an emergency room physician, I took Advil and other steps to institute healing.
The healing may take days or weeks or even longer, but with a positive outlook, I'm prepared for it.
I've also had a slipped disc in my lower back since May, 1999 (over 15 years) and have been blessed not to need surgery.
But here is what I have learned from this and other such painful experiences:
They are a blessing, for they offer Karmic direction and resolution and they cause us to compassionately relate to the problems and pain of others.
A great example that comes to mind is U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933 - 1945) who was born into vast wealth.
As a result, he didn't relate well to most people, but instead, he related to others of vast wealth. He was generally arrogant and insensitive.
But one morning he awoke and could not move his legs.
Doctors subsequently diagnosed it as Polio, and all of his money and connections could not buy him out of this horror.
He thought his political career and perhaps his life was over, as he sunk into depression.
But in response, he bought a rehabilitation facility in Warm Springs, Georgia, one too big and costly for only him, and so he allowed the public, comprised of other physically limited people and their families, to join him.
Ultimately he would invest a substantial portion of his inheritance into this facility to make it much nicer for everyone, and in the process, really connected with people.
It was this compassionate connection that led him to becoming Governor of New York, which led him to the U.S. Presidency.
In other words, no Polio, no Presidency.
We all have our problems, but if we embrace them instead of only complaining about them, they can help to make a wonderful difference in our lives, and offer us a higher awareness of what life is really about.
Dick
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