Thursday, March 12, 2015

Fingers of Steel

I am a worrier.  I worry about things that are happening, have happened, will happen or are just a remote possibility.  I worry for all those people on the earth that seem to have been born without the worry gene.  Someone has to do it.  Right?

Well, be that as it may, worry I do.  As a result, over the years I have developed quite a collection of muscle knots in my neck and shoulders.  They started off innocently enough.  Just one small knot, caused by Algebra I, that didn't really cause much bother.  But then that knot invited others to come and stay (see Algebra II, Trig, Latin, Chemistry, etc.) and before you knew it I had an entire village living in my neck and shoulders.  And, being Catholic knots, the population expanded exponentially (college German, college geology, boyfriends, a master's thesis, etc.)  until I was supporting a thriving metropolis.

Something had to be done before I lost the ability to turn my head because my neck and shoulders were so stiff.  After all, driving was never my forte at the best of times. Right, Dad.

Enter the neck and shoulder rub(s).  I whined and begged countless people over and over to help me break up or just loosen some of the knots.  My roommates, my sister, my niece, countless friends were all commandeered to help.  But the person who gave the best rub:  my dearly beloved mom.

She had fingers with the strength of steel.  Trust me, I should know.  And she used those super strong fingers to attack those knots and knead them into submission.  The final result was wonderful!        BUT....

And this is a BIG but:  getting that final result was agony!

Mom was a wonderful mother.  Let me say that right at the beginning.  However, she had learned the lesson of tough love during her parenting days and she had learned it very well.

No matter how many times I squirmed; said ouch; asked her to stop; told her I felt better and she could stop; begged her to stop:  She would keep on until her fingers told her that the knots, if not completely gone were now just baby, little, no problem knots.

And momma did know better than I.  She was right.  The results were (almost) worth the pain.

And in a few months I would ask and she would do it all over again.  Thanks, momma.  I miss those neck and shoulder rubs.


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