If You Write It, They Will Come

A few weeks into my back pain, I was standing at the Berkeley Bowl grocery check-out (the best grocery store in the world in my opinion). I was scanning the various earthy crunchy magazines they had displayed (probably including the organic vegetarian pet magazine – this is Berkeley after all) and noticed a magazine about healing back pain naturally. I automatically plucked it out of the rack and threw it on the check-out counter. As I stood there and watched it make its way to the scanner, I noticed the price was $20.00. This was not a hard cover book. It was a regular sized magazine. I thought twice, but decided to purchase it. As the check-out guy scanned it, he saw the price, did a double-take and said he couldn’t believe I was spending $20.00 on a magazine. I looked at the twenty-something year-old checker and said, I bet you’ve never been in chronic back pain. If you had, you would understand. This was almost three years ago and I remember it vividly.

I think anyone with chronic pain is desperate for new ideas, compassion, comradery and understanding. I will listen to anyone who wants to talk about their pain and I’ve noticed that other people in chronic pain patiently listen to me. One enters a different world when something like this happens and we will do anything and read anything in hopes of help of relief. This is one reason I believe and I hope that others will want to share this blog and post comments with ideas and thoughts and stories of their own journey toward healing. Bring it on!