The Merry-Go-Round

I hadn't seen her for nearly two years. It had been almost five years ago when she first walked into the exam room with panic all over her face. So much had happened to her, she was caught in the chaos, and her body had broken down. Eventually with time and rest, her spirit found peace, and with medical intervention she found relief. But she always ventured back onto her merry-go-round of stress. . .

I welcomed her embrace and was so glad to see her. She told me once more, how month after month, there had been such major events all too consuming for her to address. "It was one thing after another, " she said, "I had no other recourse." And now she was worried again that she'd let herself go, her blood pressure kept climbing. . .

There is something about modern society, it is all too consuming, yet so inviting. Everyday it welcomes us to join on the merry-go-round that whirls us around at an impossible pace. We grow accustom to spinning and making ourselves dizzy by filling our days, 24/7. It's so easy to think that we must ride the wheel, that we tend to forget that it's our choice to make. You cannot ride on the wheel if you're weak and can hardly hang on; it's even more difficult to help others hold on. The merry-go-round can stop, but only when you decidedly choose to get off.

Our body, our mind, is just finite; created to live in the moment; created for breathing, for fueling with real food sources, for balance, for play, for adequate rest and relaxation. The merry-go-round will always remain as a "given", but it doesn't have to be where we do all our livin'. . .

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Mary's Heartbeats

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