From cradle to grave most of us are asked, encouraged and threatened to exercise. Stretch, run, do push-ups, work off the flab.
And we spend at least half of the next eight decades questioning that ‘need.?
With those early thoughts still prevalent, I signed up for some professional training.
I stretched and pulled for a couple times a week for a few months. Then one morning I couldn’t do two minutes on my stationary bike. I could barely get back upstairs.
I still had that early teaching in mind, so I took the advice of Marilyn Do-good and signed up for a massage.
I didn’t have to get naked, but the gal didn’t care if I did. She covered me with a sheet as soon as she saw my body.
First, face down with my head over a hole, the oil-covered hands went up, down and around. Sometimes rather strongly.
There wasn’t much conversation, but she told me her movements had to do mostly with moving blood around.
This made sense to me since I had circulation problems in one leg a few years ago requiring surgery.
She dimmed the lights for atmosphere and laid something warm over me.
A half-hour kneading on the back, then a half-hour on the other sides.
I left feeling great, and made another appointment. However, the next day, I questioned that decision. My clothes weighed a ton. My steps were slow and short. The thought occurred to Call Sam.
The next day things were fine again.
Right now, massages are winning over exercise.
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Jim’s Jottings is my column, so it’s often just about me, like now. Lacking a decent memory, I’ve carried some yellow 3×5 cards and a pen in my shirt pocket for many years.
The notes I take sometimes turn into Jottings, sometimes groceries. Mike the Painter’s pen and my notes were missing one morning. I was devastated. I looked everywhere.
When I opened the washing machine lid, I saw Mike the Painter’s red pen, and my laminated notes for mind-jogging ? be happy, stay happy, prayerize, actualize, think positive thoughts, don’t worry about tomorrow, etc.
But my notes for possible Jottings were dissolved by soap and water.
However, I know one of them was about Shayna.
My massage felt so good to me, I tried kneading her. For me, the neck treatment was especially nice. Shayna showed the same response.
Her head dropped a little as she leaned into my hands. Her shoulders relaxed, but I resisted getting on the floor with her.
Once in a while, she’d look up at me, tilt her head enough so I could see her smile and show her plea to not stop.
The drawback to all the kneading came as she moved away, leaving a whole lot of dog hair on my carpet.
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Don’t you hate the commercials that boast pill results, then warn you: If you experience hunger or lack of hunger, sleepiness or awakeness, ache or lack of ache, call your physician, carpenter or mechanic , and the law firm Beat’em, Cheat’em and How.