“Stop. Revive. Survive.” ~ Melina Marchetta

Every once in awhile . . .

As you’re going along in life something will happen that will cause you to stop, whether you choose to do so. It will grind your life to an annoying halt with no warning.

It happened to me on Saturday. I woke up with a nauseating, bone grinding migraine headache. I was scheduled to work starting at 0900 – and it just wasn’t going to happen. On opening my eyes, the room was spinning. My stomach was spinning. I staggered as if I were drunk. When I made it back to bed from the bathroom, I managed to call my employer – but I was crying so hard and I was so hoarse they had trouble understanding me.

*Note to self – having a cup of coffee truly will not help as much as you think it might, and having thrown up but feeling shaky and weak: yes, the blood sugar was low, but the choice of a lemon honey stick may not have been the best thing to try and get down a throat already irritated with stomach acid.

Ice packs, positioning, pressure – anything I could think of to cause the waves of nausea and pain to stop. I knew I needed to eat but no way was I putting anything else in my stomach. After the nausea finally waned, my sweet daughter made me toast but as I sat up to eat it, I could only cry as the room was swaying so badly. Once it stayed down, I was able to take pain medications and sleep.

Blessed sleep. Uninterrupted. Dreamless.

And then it was over. When I awoke, the headache had diminished greatly and the room was no longer spinning, but the light felt like daggers to my eyes. Fortunately, I took an Aleve PM before bed that night and when I awoke this morning, I felt wonderfully rested.

Sometimes I think God uses these moments, or hours, or sometimes days . . . to get our attention that we need to slow down. Evident our lack of slowing down, events will happen that require us to stop in our tracks and get some rest.