Mind, Body, Soul...Body Wins

So where have I been?  Transitioning to a new role and relocating again would probably be enough to take some time off and ease up on the extra-curricular activities right?  No, higher levels of day-to-day stress or significant career / personal upheavals don’t require me to “slow down” or “take it easy”; I still have my nights and periodic, non-family, quiet times where I can reflect, meditate, and “ideate”. This latest hiatus was due to my body crapping out.  And not the kind of oft-purported stress-induced shut down or mental breakdown; I find that those kinds of breakdowns are prevented with daily exercise, proper nutrition, sex with my lovely wife, and humor.  I’m talking about my internal organs just deciding that they’re going to stop working, completely out of my control.  This time it’s my gallbladder (my appendix decided it was time to exodus about a year ago).

In a nutshell, the entire month of March was spent in hospitals, Doctor’s office, specialist offices, testing offices, radiology departments, you name it.  Nobody could figure out what was wrong with me.  I didn’t have any classic indicators that normally accompany a failing gallbladder.  It wasn’t until my wife talked about my condition with her best friend that we finally asked the Doctor about a HIDA scan; a long test that is used to determine if the gallbladder is functioning properly even if there are no gallstones.  As it turns out, my gallbladder is not working and it must be taken out; so now I wait for the minimally invasive procedure.

Whilst all this was happening, I observed two things.  One, I found it curious (and frustrating) the frequency to which friends and family kept proffering advice and defaulting to stress-induced causes despite me presenting overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Second, if life is a balance between mind, body, and soul - for me, body is the base.  As I stated before, I actively manage the mind-body-soul interaction by exercising daily, eating ridiculously healthy, reading prolifically, ravaging the wife, entertaining the boys, and meditating as best as I can.  But when the body, through no control of my own, decides it’s done, the whole equation goes.  I have no surplus energy to put to my side projects; I have no personal desire or drive to keep creating instead of simply consuming.  My entire focus falls on getting better, to getting the “host” back to working order.

I oft get upset when things don’t work as they should, especially when I follow all the prescribed preventative measures.  I.e. if you get regular oil changes, you should get longer car life. Therefore, my reasoning goes, if you eat healthy & exercise regularly, you should get a longer, more consistent, body life and body performance.  However, based on this latest episode, perhaps the equation isn’t that easy (especially when you think about George Burns). Perhaps some things truly are out of my control despite my best efforts to mitigate them. Better stated, instead of getting upset when things don’t operate as the “should”, more acceptance is the key. To be clear, however, I’m still not going to “slow down” Mom, sorry.