MY SHOULDER…

I was trying to speed up my recovery from a wrenched shoulder after most of the muscles of my right Trapezius, Levator Scapula and Rhomboids had been badly sprained by an over enthusiastic day’s surfing.


My acupuncturist, Sam, is an absolute wizard at sorting out the physical problems – he trained with a Taiwanese master who put together the learning of several different masters into one basic ‘system’ that any acupuncturist can learn. At least that is what Sam says – I think he is too modest and that he probably learned it a bit deeper than most of the rest. So to treat my right shoulder he is sticking needles into my left ankle….


Cool!


Anyway, as I lay there on the acupuncture table, I suddenly found myself connecting with a part of myself that I had left behind over 33 years ago. It was a painful and a very sad part of me. And it certainly needed a bit of company from me after 33 years all alone…


I was reminded of Carl Gustav Jung’s story about travelling across North Africa in a taxi journey. He couldn’t speak the language and taxi was the only way he could cross the distance to meet up with his friend. After about 4 hours, the taxi driver just stopped by a few trees and got out. Jung was convinced that it was a rendezvous with robbers and was coming to terms with his last few moments on Earth….


But no, after about an hour the driver got back in the cab and drove for another few hours. When they arrived, Jung asked his friend to interrogate the driver about why he stopped. The answer?


“I was waiting for my soul to catch up with me…”


And that is what I felt at the end of the acupuncture session. When Sam asked me how my shoulder was, I said “Who cares about my shoulder?” 

You see, I felt whole again. As if part of my soul had caught up with me again. And I felt good – even if there was a part of me still very sad…

And the shoulder?

Loads better…. But that no longer mattered. 

I was me.

Whole…

Again.

And this led to me doing my decompression exercises again the next morning, for the first time in a week….

Have a happy day 

Gerry