Inward

Autumnal equinox. AKA Mabon. Never been a fan of that name for it, for some reason...it's too short or something. MAY-BON or MAY-BIN, depending on how Irish you choose to be about it. But it stands for so much more...Autumn has turned into quite something to look forward to. Yea, yea...wood smoke and falling leaves and pumpkin everything...I used to think I enjoyed the idea of it so much because I haven't had much of it here in Florida the past 25 years or so, but you only have to troll on Tumblr or Pinterest for 5 minutes to know I'm not alone in my sentiment. I'm definitely not the only one bat-shit cray-cray over Autumn.

Sidebar: Dear Starbucks, Pumpkin Spice VIA? Really? Was that necessary? I'm trying hard to not litter the planet with packaging and you come out with that delicious nonsense? You're all evil sonsabitches.
 

This week has been hard. I didn't realize how hard until my body started telling me so. Wednesday night, I had real trouble getting to sleep because the inflammation around my mid-section increased significantly. This was caused by 3 straight days of eating mainly fast food without care about what it was costing me. I wasn't overly thirsty, but my sodium must have been through the roof. I don't learn lessons easily, so the level of discomfort it caused throughout my upper torso would have been scary, except this has happened before...when I was a chronic overeater.

Thursday, I felt out of sorts, like my chi needed a recharge, and as the day progressed, I realized I was enjoying nerve pain again. I had shingles earlier this year, and while it was a remarkably mild case, the fact is that I've managed to procure some postherpetic neuralgia, they call it. This happened once before, only lasted for 1 day. This time, it's lasting longer and has me wondering about how the inflammation could have triggered it. Which has me reaching for my OA books, Crazy Sexy Diet, and very proud of myself for enrolling in Heather's Whole Food Kitchen course, even though I did so with "move" money.

I want to get back to the Y, but I feel drawn to turtle today, let myself be quiet. That's hard to do, there's so much to accomplish in the next 3 months...but I was reminded of Amanda's posts this summer (and the latest issue of Taproot, aptly titled "Retreat") about slowing down, letting life chill a bit. The autumnal equinox is all about slowing down, as the wheel turns toward a time of dormancy and rest. Sure, I need to workout, it's been a couple of days...but I also need to work in the kitchen, make waffles, do laundry, be domestic, and hilariously, the latter is a lot easier to reconcile yourself to when you have an imaginary knife sticking in your right shoulder blade. It's centering, quiet, and exactly what I need right now.

Happy Mabon, y'all!

Images from my Tumblr.