I’m currently coming off another round with the mother of all headaches. I don’t get one of these too often, but when I do…YOWZA! I feel like one of those MOAB bombs exploded in the back on my head and took everything with it!
Do you know what that feels like? Does it ever happen to you?
I know I inflicted this pain on myself too, but I’m not entirely sure how. Was it caused or contributed to by the all the exercise I did over the weekend, cleaning for company and planting lots of spring flowers? Did I trigger it by going to the Arboretum and taking photos of the (very) fragrant lilacs on what proved to be a somewhat windy day? Was something I ate responsible for this?

Or was it caused by some combination of the above or by all of the above getting together and having a wild thumping party in my skull?
I’m not sure. I only know that by yesterday morning, extreme fatigue had set in, and eventually my skull started split…
I’m not sorry for doing any of these things I’ve mentioned, you understand: a girl’s gotta eat and exercise, after all–and even though I do try to be very careful most of the time, when there’s company I let my guard down and do things I usually don’t, just because.
I’m especially not sorry I got all that exercise! Not even when my back was screaming blue murder at me was I sorry–
And I’m most especially NOT sorry I took photos of lilacs!
I love flowers, and I love spending time with family at the Arboretum. It’s one of my favorite places.
Pain is a part of life. Paying for living by spending a day in bed every so often with the mother of all headaches, while miserable and nasty, and so not what I ever want to do with my day, seems to occasionally be a necessity–if I want to actually live and enjoy life.
I’d love to draw a spiritual truth into this from the Bible. I’m sure you could think of a few! Unfortunately, being on the tail end of this kind of headache makes it hard to connect certain types of dots. Maybe I’ll remember tomorrow and add to this post? And maybe I won’t!
And I wonder–because I doubt that I’m alone in this–what makes your life well-lived even when you pay for that living with pain?