I Am Straightened

Ok, this is your massage reporter checking in with a report of how I felt the morning after my arduous session of being worked over by the massage therapist. First let me say that there was much soreness throughout the day of the massage, mostly in my upper back. A long afternoon nap might have been just the ticket, instead of being on my feet all day preparing for our supper guests.

Digression: After the lasagna was eaten and dishes packed into the dishwasher, I sank into the plushness of the couch and listened comfortably to the conversation continuing around the dining table. We enjoyed getting acquainted with my daughter’s new friend. My initial impressions of him were positive, but I’ve been down this road before with my older kids, and, the fact is…..you just never know how things will go.

More digression: One thing in his favor---he was quite interested in my collection of field rocks, which litter the house here and there. Yes, I love “pretty” rocks……I just can’t pass them up out there in the field. He especially liked the Great Lakes/Lake Superior agate I found here on our farm several years ago. Its not pictured in this photo, but if you search “agate” in my blog’s search bar, you’ll find a post about it. Our former milk truck driver, who has now gone back to teaching high school science, is a rock hound, too. He said my house will never blow away in a windstorm because its weighted down with so many rocks! Alright! I can dig it!

After my daughter and her friend left around 10 p.m., I grabbed my laptop from its resting place below these lighted fake branches and wrote the previous post while the details of the morning’s massage were still fairly clear in my mind. When finished, I gulped down two ibuprofen and hobbled off to bed, wondering what on earth I would feel like in the morning.

Well, guess what……I slept very well, for once totally oblivious to my husband’s log-sawing. Upon awakening, I was at first afraid to move, but then did, and felt……well, no pain or stiffness in my back, that’s for sure. My ankles were a bit stiff, as usual, protesting the fact that they must tote me around for another day. But, amazingly, my back felt great.

I’ll try to explain what I mean. Slouching has been a lifelong habit for me. My mom used to yell at me, “L.J., straighten up!!” And, she meant that literally……”straighten up your shoulders!” Sometimes she made me walk around with a book balanced on my head in hopes of posture improvement, but I simply never felt comfortable throwing my shoulders back and thrusting the chest out. Egads.

I recall that one of my grandmothers had a dowager hump in her back and lately I’ve felt headed down the same road. Its been a painful effort recently to hold my shoulders out and straight……it would hurt so bad between my shoulder blades that I’d rather just collapse inward, and that’s bad for lungs and heart. But---get this---this morning it felt completely comfortable and normal to stand perfectly straight. No pain in the areas between my shoulder blades and spine……and, that is exactly where the therapist did her most intense kneading and digging, causing me much discomfort during the massage. There was much cracking and thunking going on inside my back at that point; it must have been like undoing a knotted rope.

Ok, that is the actual truth, folks. I want to be honest about this massage experience……it did hurt immensely, but perhaps the discomfort will turn out to have been worth it. And, perhaps the pain was so intense because it was my first time. I’m going to wait a month or so before using the other gift certificate. Someone commented that the second day after the massage might be the worst, so I’ll let you know if that happens.

When I said that the massage therapist got her start while training horses, that really is true, but not from massaging horses. She told me she would walk up behind other trainers and rub their shoulders and they would say, “Oh, that feels so good……you should think about becoming a massage therapist.” And, she did. She attended a school called “Healing Hands”, and, well, maybe that is a part of what they’re able to accomplish.

Massage reporter signing off now……have a wonderful day!