Ordinary Realm PSEs

Recently I felt a deadline to get my first editing of my book completed, so I could send off to a reader. I was eager to get the manuscript in the mail. I sat for 8 hours straight at my computer lost in rewriting and unconscious of my bodily needs. That is, I barely moved except for my fingers, barely drank water or had anything to eat. Talk about singular focus. 

But when I tried to move, I was stiff and in pain. And a damaged nerve from an old dental needle injury to the lower right jaw that caused trigeminal neuralgia, was triggered. Trigeminal neuralgia is nicknamed the “suicide disease” because of the excruciating pain, I had been free of the cattle-prod electric pain shock for a couple of years. But now it was finding its way back to let me know it doesn't like being ignored. I struggle to drink, eat or speak.

Over the years since that fateful dental appointment, I have learned to see this original event and the subsequent flare ups as signs that I need to pay attention. That is, I see them as PSEs in ordinary reality. Obviously, this latest episode requires retreating, including forced solitude, silence and careful nutrition. At the first strike, I desperately search for a way to relieve the pain which mostly requires heat and ice and lying down. It is a painful path to the Slow Down and Smell the Roses.

I think of PSEs as clues toward our enlightening path. In this case the nerve cattle-prod herds me back to the way. This is a time for quiet, gardening and rest. I did not always see this injury in such a light. At first, I was angry and wanted revenge on the bully of a hygienist who shoved the needle into my gum. She was mean and condescending. I ruminated about how I should have said “no” to her when she was belittling me for being afraid. But over the years, my understanding of this suffering has changed. Suffering changes us. 

PSEs are disruptive. Some are more so than others, but if you let them, they will reflect your personal spiritual IEP. A special plan, made by Spirit, just for you.