After much tapping and poking and asking Does this hurt? Or THIS! and (oddly) sticking her little fingers in my ears? she said, Well Reverend my best advice is an extraction! Right there in the chair with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and in no time the troublesome tooth was out and away. That was yesterday. Today? Less pain.

Over the past couple of weeks or so I’ve fallen under the spell of wandering jaw, tooth and sinus pains. With dentists off duty for the holidays I’ve just had to grin and bear with it. But with it came diminished brain function which, because of diminished brain function, I didn’t fully realize! The truth of it is gradually dawning on me as I rise out of the fog of pain.

Thinking is still quite a struggle. Thinking what to say now. Goodness! How very much we rely on our ability to sequence thoughts. Our ability to think straight. Interesting though, to see or know, that the reflective capacity remains intact in the midst of, for me, relatively mild difficult mind states.

Somebody asked me recently why it is that some people take up a reflective/spiritual practice, and some do not. If I had had my wits about me I’d have said something like, It’s the people who know they hurt badly enough, and believe they can do something about it, who take up a reflective practice. But I stumbled and rambled on about how I find it difficult to distinguish between those who do and those who do not have a practice. Even in extremity the capacity to reflect and act remains, to a greater or lesser amount, in tact. I feel that capacity is common to all.

Thanks to the people sitting in Hebden Bridge who sat through my somewhat disjointed speaking the other evening.

This post is for those who are in real extremity. Especially mental/emotional extremity. And for those wonderful individuals who help them. Real treasures.