Working and Living with Chronic Pain
In one of the chronic pain support groups to which I belong, someone asked the question today, “How do you find meaning in a life wrecked by chronic pain?”
This was my answer:
“For me, I serve my Gods. That’s not something that stops bc I have chronic pain. Also, I think it keeps me humble—irritable but humble. My chronic pain started as a result of a ballet career and significant body damage, injury, etc. that came from that (the fibromyalgia came later) so it’s like warrior marks. This is the path I travelled and that path wound for years through something that I loved (dancing) more than life itself. I tell people that for 13 years I could fly. Remembering that it came from something I loved, something to which I had dedicated my life, for me, psychologically makes it better. But oh there are days, days where I just want to curl up and die, but I remind myself of the blessings that I have been given in my life and the work I still have to do for the Gods I love.”
And that’s really it. Service to my Gods isn’t conditional on how I’m feeling, and no matter how bad it gets, that devotional connection is a light in the darkness. So for those of you reading this who also have chronic pain, don’t give up. Take it one day at a time and do what you can do, even if that’s just a whispered prayer or lighting a candle. Your value to your Gods is not dependent on having a perfect body.
Posted on April 29, 2020, in Lived Polytheism, Uncategorized and tagged chronic pain, devotion, Lived Polytheism. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Very beautiful post, Galina. Thank you for sharing this. ❤
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I hear you Galina. My decades of physical training and my time in the infantry have left my body pretty beat up. The gods have never seen the need to remove the pain or heal old
injuries, so I’ve had to choose a different strategy: I offer them my pain.
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I really needed to hear that today; thank you
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