1. I seem to have pulled what must be some huge tendon that runs down the back of my knee. Heat? Cold? Rest? Ignore? Other ideas? (Ideas that don't involve medical personnel or facilities.)
2. I notice that all the Thanksgiving blog entries are about either great joy (new babies or redeemed lives) or great sadness (death or very very very unsatisfactory lives). This holiday offers no middle ground, does it?
3. Do any of you carry an image of the Holy Spirit around in your head? Someone sent me a lovely note a few weeks ago which got me thinking . . . unsuccessfully. I looked around online and came up all doves. When I tried searching for feminine representations (which is how I think of the Holy Spirit), I got Wisdom and goddess images. Anyone?
I often "see" the Holy Spirit as the wind. I know the wind is hard to represent on paper but still this is often my image of the Spirit.
ReplyDeleteOf course! I googled ruach and this was the first thing I found: http://www.lucysynkfantasyart.com/gallery
ReplyDeleteCold and ibuprofen and rest sound good to me!
ReplyDeleteOk so not so hard to represent on paper perhaps! Interesting picture ..... gives different visuals to my own image of trees blowing in the wind, or gales or breeze. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking the question about Thanksgiving. I have been wondering much the same thing. I think I puzzled and disappointed the Thanksgiving Eve church crowd by trying to find that middle ground.
ReplyDeleteHoly Spirit - wind, breath, that still small voice of God, an internal movment, a nudging to do something in love, and yes, I see the Holy Spirit as "She"...
ReplyDeleteFor the knee: our hamstring and the muscle of the calf (gastrocnemius sp)connect via tendons at the back of the knee, along with 7 or so ligaments that stabilize the knee. SOOOO...the strain could be further up or down, but like a snag in a sweater, it may be felt further along the "snag.." that said - try alternating ice and heat - use real ice cubes in a baggie - the colder the better. ice for 10-20 minutes followed by 10 minutes (and no more) of heat - a moist heat pack is best. Follow this with 10-20 minutes more of ice. Repeat as often as necessary. This process will increase the blood flow through the area which will clean out the inflammation and toxins from the strain. And take enough ibuprofen to be a muscle relaxant for you 2-4 tablets. You can repreat the ibuprofen every 6 hours or more - but be careful, it's rough on the stomach....lastly, rest the leg. And, you can try wrapping it to see if that helps... hope it feels better soon.
Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate.
ReplyDeleteIbuprofen.
Says the woman pampering a recurring hamstring injury at this very moment.
Also, I find that mixing rubbing alcohol and water in a baggie, and freezing that works best-- cold as ice, but more able to conform to the injured part (as the alcohol doesn't freeze). Wound slushie, basically.
Also, massage and/or a good foam roller works miracles.
I often think of the Holy Spirit as Shekinah, Hebrew for She Who Dwells Within and the primary feminine divine image for Jewish feminist thealogians. Shekinah is also often envisioned as a mother bird sheltering us under her wings or bearing us up on them and teaching us to fly, i.e. the biblical mother eagle or others stronger and more dramatic than a dove. I have a friend who sees her as a hunting heron!
ReplyDeleteFire is also a major image of the Spirit in the liturgical and artistic tradition, and living water, and sweet fragrance. All of those work for me at different times.
As Di said, RICE: Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. And definitely ibuprofen (not Tylenol as it doesn't help with inflammation). A bag of frozen peas also works well. I hope it's better by now.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Thanksgiving being all or nothing, I don't think that's necessarily the case. For me, I'm aware of much for which to be thankful while also being keenly in touch with the negative in my life. So it's a mixed bag.
Re: the leg. The physiotherapist sounds like a good idea who can made a professional diagnosis and give ultra sound to help the heat/cold methods suggested above. I find they are worth their weight in gold when my back 'goes' or I have a shoulder injury.
ReplyDeleteRe: Holy Spirit: my favourite image is that of the (Australian) sulphur crested white cockatoo flying against our powder blue skies. Underneath their wings it is a beautiful yellowy pure white suggesting the Holy and the wild, free wheeling way in which they 'lurch' as they fly in an unpredicable direction suggests the freedom of the Spirit to move as he wills.
http://www.mdavid.com.au/cockatoo/sulphurcrested.shtml
http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Cacatua-galerita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur-crested_Cockatoo
They are common in our suburban environment and when I hear their screech I am reminded of the freedom of God and his purity.
(Lots of our other marsupials make good equivalents of the other two members of the trinity as well. What do you see when you look into the face of a wombat?
I have a framed copy of this one on my desk at work:
ReplyDeletehttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://listenforjoy.com/art/large/Breathe.jpg&imgrefurl=http://listenforjoy.com/art/breathe.html&usg=__TLWkVCMEvrhxinq-n2eaouRnu88=&h=550&w=416&sz=24&hl=en&start=6&sig2=Hq00xGrC6MvtZ3wPsDYgbw&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=nNBssIcjFgNgQM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddeep%2Bbreath%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=KCP0TPatH4PGlQeMx7z-CQ
hope you can see that. Now I'm off to look at the face of a wombat, something I think I have not ever done before...