Daily 5 - Day 328

Today's Daily 5:

1. Meeting a friend in person for the first time.
2. Hours and hours of wonderful conversation with two different friends over two different "coffee" dates today.
3. The kinds of conversations that feed soul, not just mind
4. A fantastic cup of Roman Provence Rooibos tea from Higher Ground coffee shop - seriously folks, I've had that particular strain of rooibos before, but this was the best cup of tea I've had in ages.
5. sitting in the sun, talking, praying, laughing
6. got a ten minute yoga workout in - it's amazing to me that I can move my neck and shoulders without pain.  I have horrendous bruises (that I admittedly showed to everyone I met today, simply because they amuse me greatly) from last night's cupping experience, but dang if it didn't really and truly loosen up muscles that my health care guy declared to have "knots on top of knots" only yesterday.
7. totally wasn't a day that was as productive as I would have preferred for studying, but there was much to feed my soul instead, and I'm going to choose to celebrate that and not worry about the longer days and time I'll need to put in on the weekend.
8. laughter
9. new friends - both of those I had coffee with are relatively new, and are relationships that I am encountering God's blessing in
10. getting out a little bit - in some ways I'm feeling a bit these days like my world has shrunk.  I spend most of my time buried in textbooks, I'm not killing hours sitting in front of a computer with little to do and I thus forget to check news headlines for days at a time, and I can go days or a week without seeing anyone except my family.  Days like today where I got out to go for coffee, and where I do a few errands with whichever parent is heading out that day, are a blessing right now for my slightly shrunken world.

New Experience. Bruised.

Last night I had an appointment with my natural health practitioner.  I'd been looking forward to this appointment as I had several questions for him, and I was even more relieved for the appointment to arrive because I've been fighting with some severely sore muscles and bad headaches for the last couple of days and knew enough to know that he would probably be able to relieve some of the symptoms.

This was a new one, though.  The muscles were so tight that he declared that "cupping" was the only thing that was going to quickly and effectively loosen the knots, giving me me relief.  (By the way, there was no bloodletting - which the article I linked to mentions!)

It worked, but let me tell you, you should see my back and shoulders.  They're much looser, and I have large, perfectly round bright reddish purple bruises where the cups were.  Ugly, big bruises.  Apparently this is from the release of toxins.  It wasn't all that painful, except for one, and even that was more of a growing pulling pressure than really pain.  But, let me tell you, I won't be wearing a bikini (or bathing suit of any kind really) or a low backed top, or really anything in which you can see the back of me anytime soon!