Injured hamster.

Ever walked into a room to do something and totally zone out? I usually have to walk back out of the room and go back to my originating room, stand there for a while thinking about stuff, then hope a miracle occurs in my brain. Yesterday afternoon, I walked back to the bathroom to shave. I had been pretty busy all morning. I'm sure you're thinking, "Why shave in the middle of the afternoon? What about morning shaves when one gets out of bed?" I did say I was quite busy....maybe too busy for what was about to transpire. On a good note, I made my lovely, caring, compassionate, sweet, (did I say caring?) wife laugh uncontrollably.

We were preparing to go out for the afternoon with the grandkids and I told my lovely, caring,....my wife that I needed to shave before we left. Okay. As I reached into our walk in shower to grab my razor, my brain went blank. I mean the hamster inside my head running on the wheel may have suffered from a bit of ADHD and all of a sudden the screen went to blue. (Crash!)

I pulled out the squeegee we use to wipe down the shower walls. I looked at it and the look on my face must have been a priceless Kodak moment. Confusion dripped from my face and then my lovely, caring, compassionate, sweet wife laughed uncontrollably. She literally cackled with delightful belly shaking laughter.

I dropped my head, turned back to the shower, hung the squeegee back in the holder and grabbed the razor. I then stood looking into the mirror wondering who standing there looking back. Oh, she is still laughing. I smiled and completed the task. As I finished, I could still hear my lovely, caring, compassionate, sweet wife laughing out in the front room...

All joking aside, I have sensed something not quite right. I have noticed tightness in my lower back and some discomfort in my hips. I have felt a bit lethargic and while 56 years of age is pretty old, I'm still in fair shape. So why the lapse in cognition? Why was a squeegee the tool of choice for shaving my mug? Pretty sure I have been in this place before. It was during a stressful time in the past. Lower back stiffness, spasms, and extremity discomfort were harbingers of rising stress.

What does the Bible have to say about stress? Ha. Ha. Does it say anything at all about overworking? Yes, yes, it does!

"The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from

morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is

this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around

you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s

will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them

of God’s decrees and laws.” Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and

these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you

cannot handle it alone." (Exodus 18:13-18, NIV)

The father-in-law of Moses could see the problem. Moses was too close and too involved to see it. Moses' self importance clouded his vision and he believed he needed to do it all! Moses needed to say 'no' once and awhile. Perhaps that would be a good word for me to adopt from time to time. How about you, are there signals your body is displaying that hint of overwork and growing stress? Have you noticed daily function and effectiveness declining? Maybe it's time to stop and look into the mirror and see who is looking back at you. It helped me to noticed lines under my eyes and clearly a squeegee is 'thee' worst utensil with which to shave whiskers.

PS: I love to make my wife laugh but doing dumb things isn't my first choice to do so.

PSS: No hamsters were injured during the writing of this blog.