Irritations

There are times, when for no clear reason, I find myself plagued by something poking me in a finger or a toe, and I have no idea how it got there. It only hurts when I bump against it, and it takes real work to find the source of the irritation. Sometimes it’s easily removed with a pair of tweezers or a finger, and sometimes it just stays there to fester, harden, and eventually go away. I think there are a lot of spiritual things like that. Little irritations that you discover by accident when you bump into them. They’re hard to spot and harder to remove and cause that little bit of annoying trouble that reminds you the problem is there, maybe to be fixed, maybe not.

I thought about this yesterday as I stood on my porch watching the wind blow. I thought about how few of those little life irritations I was feeling these days. Some of my previous bothers, I’ve physically removed and some have just hardened so that they’re now part of me and I can safely ignore them, like a bump on a finger or a nob on my arm. Of course, given the nature of the beast, there’s no telling when one will pop up, but for now, I feel blessedly free.

I’d like to think I’ve done something magical, but I suspect it’s just part of life and the aging process. I feel less tender and susceptible. Not in a bad way, I’m just tougher and able to shed tiny miseries. Also, as has happened with the floaters in my eye, my brain no longer sees them. It’s amazing. Of course, I’m grateful. Who wouldn’t be? I suspect I wasted a lot of my youth dealing with those things, although maybe that’s simply part of growing up, and learning what’s truly important.