Listen to your body, they say. Like exactly which part of it? I wonder.
Sure, I am 40+ (but how much plus, I ain’t telling ya!) and by now, I should get the hang of it. But being 40+ also means that there is a whole lot more of me to listen to.
Should I listen to my ears? But, wait a minute, I listen with my ears. If to that, I add listening to my ears , then the husband will sigh in relief that my madness doesn’t need any further certification. At the most, I can hear earworms !
Should I listen to the groaning in hunger of my stomach? No, that it seems, I should ignore or first drink a glass of water, then wait for 30 mins, if still groaning , then munch up, but just enough to listen to the groaning in another hour or so. Phew! Such a long “sentence” for the stomach, I would rather munch up (read : stock up) before I can hear anything from it.
I would like to listen to the gall bladder or my pancreas or the liver or my kidneys. Since no one really says much about them, unless affected. To master listening to the inner organs, I will first have to master twisting my body in some extreme asana ; so that will have to wait for some time.
I can’t possibly hear the largest organ , the skin. That one is too caught up with shining with sweat (Note : not perspiring) and cladding my inner organs. Maybe I should listen to the Interstitium? But wait, before that, I need to know where exactly in my body it is present.
They say feet say quite a bit about oneself. I wonder what mine might say. That I just shouldn’t be wearing those shoes that I need to be kind to them by putting them up once in a while, that my toes need a regular pedicure. Or I think they will rather say that I should travel to places, use them more often, walk around.
What about my hands? And my fingers? And my nails? They have been bitten into, twisted and turned, clapped in chorus , used as a weapon in a slap. They have held babies and minced food, folded laundry and washed stains and most of all they have been held in warm handshakes and clasped in deep prayer.
I should listen to my heart, but that one thing, maybe I don’t have the courage to. And lesser said about listening to the babble in my mind, the better. Now, if only, the others around me would listen to me, that would be something.
24th April 2018