I thought I’d take a turn today with a bit of a laugh: something that happened that I was telling my sister about and she was doubled over in laughter. So I figured I should share it with you – and add that I’m glad I can laugh at it now, too!
 
A few weeks back, while Rob was busy with errands and getting set for a big Rotary weekend at the Saanich Fall Fair, I took advantage of a few solitary hours and went for a massage at a hotel in nearby Sidney By the Sea. I got on Sally’s table and she proceded to try to get into the tight, taut, tense muscles in my shoulders and back. (She should have brought a Dremel; for someone who’s stepped away from the daily stress of a highwire live radio act, I sure am tense a lot.)
 
As Sally worked and I grimaced, I started to feel this…pressure. And it wasn’t in my back, but more my, um, backside. Uh-oh. 
 
I thought back to what I’d had before I went in: black coffee, cereal with almond milk – no lactose – and wondered why the sudden urge to “sparkle” (as we used to call it when Lauren was a kid) had descended upon me.
 
As she urged me to “let her in” and tried hard to pry her fingertips under my shoulder blades (boy, that was fun), I just kept getting tenser and tenser. Surely, Sally thought I was a hopeless case, but nonetheless, she persisted.
 
Then it occurred to me: the cereal I occasional eat, Love Grown, is made of…wait for it…beans. Yes, it’s fruit- or chocolate-flavoured and I love it for its high fibre, but I’d completely forgotten its unusual main ingredient.
 

 
As what was supposed to be a therapeutic but also relaxing massage continued, I just grew more and more tense. Yes, it’s as natural as almost anything we do and Sally being a yoga teacher, she – more than almost anyone – would understand. But still…I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not if I could help it!
 
Mercifully, the story has something of a happy ending. The breaking point came when Sally just happened to be juggling river rocks to get the hot and cold ones just where they’d do the most good on my body. And sure enough, a little “pup-pup” sound escaped from me. But thankfully, it was identical to the noise the stones made. My toot was moot and she was none the wiser!
 
The moral: don’t eat beans – even in a cereal – before a massage. (That goes for yoga, too.) Yeesh.
 
Enjoy your Thursday and I’ll be back with a thankfulness journal tomorrow. I hope you’ll join me and that you had a laugh today. We have to, right?