DANG IT! A BLISTER

I got a blister on my right heal earlier this week - a location where I am susceptible to friction in my boot.  It built up over a couple days of walking, getting a little bit worse each day until it forced me to take a few days rest.  It's healed up now, but I know that I will have to adopt some corrective measures to keep it from recurring...two pairs of socks ought to do the trick.

I think blisters are illustrations of life's problems in general. 

I'm going along fine, no worries in the world and then, out of nowhere, I get a little twinge that tells me something is not right.  But being me, I tell myself it's nothing and I carry on doing what I was doing - without thinking that perhaps what I am doing is the cause of my discomfort. 

A short time later, the twinge is now a sharp pain and I know that something isn't right; the pain is severe enough to make me limp, to change how I normally act.  But being me, I tell myself, "just go a little bit further, you can work through this, it won't be too bad." 

Eventually, the pain will be bad enough to bring me to a halt and force me to pay attention.  I'll examine the cause of the pain and think to myself, "Wow!  That's a really serious problem; I should have stopped and tended to that earlier.  Boy, was I dumb."

Brought to the point of admitting that I'm hurt and that I need to attend to the injury, I finally start to do what I should have done at the outset: relieve the pressure, let it get some air and dry out, apply some disinfectant and bandage if necessary.  Then change the behaviour that cause the problem in the first place, like wear two pairs of socks.

Lesson from the trail # 6: You can learn a lot from a blister...if you pay attention.  Isn't life always like that?

Pat

Take This Thought Away With You

" Most of the problems in life are because of two reasons:

We act without thinking, or, we keep thinking without acting.  "

~ from the world-wide web ~