There goes that knee again

It happens every now and then. I'll wake up at night and feel pain in my right knee or I'll notice when I take the first few steps when I get out of bed that my knee hurts and in fact seems a bit swollen.

This time it followed a three day camp out in the New hampshire woods with my son and a few other folks attending a nature camp. We hiked, sat around the cook fire dodging the smoke, forded slippery rocked creeks and slept on pads too narrow to turn over on and too thin not to need to. But it was great! The fresh air break I needed and the time to enjoy being in nature with others.

My first day back I felt wonderfully calm and my meditation that morning went longer than usual in spite of all the sore muscles in my legs and lower back. I was so nice to just sit in deep peace. I did uncoil my legs to stretch them out once or twice, but other than that I was quite comfortable and went on about my reentry back into work like always.

But the pain in my knee that morning had me going over the events of the last few days and they pointed clearly to a case of overdoing it. But, hey, what are you going to do.

I skipped sitting that day and the next  to be sure the knee had quieted down again. And leaned on the self care I always go to for aches and pains - a combination of gentle stretching and careful massage above, below and right on the affected area. 

 My knee was fine after that and will be until another flare up at some point in the future. It served to remind me once more to be kind to this constant companion on life's journey, to listen closely when this faithful servant does complain and respond.  

If you are new to sitting on the floor for your meditation, give your body (and mind) time to adjust gradually to the postural shift being asked of it. Listen for the cues that say "That might be enough for today." Progress comes from returning again and again to the place in ourselves we find when we simply sit and allow the mind to become quiet.