a...headache? and, ironically, thanks for senses

I've never had such a bad headache before. I almost literally feel nauseated. I don't know what a migraine feels like, but if it feels like this I feel really sorry for people who suffer from them. I've read stories before of people who suffered from incurable headaches...dreadful headaches. Wow. I commiserate. Again blogging is a diversion. I don't know what caused it. I went to bed and it kept getting worse and worse. So I got up and took some Tylenol. The headache must be at least partially psychological, because as soon as I swallowed the Tylenol - and I exaggerate not - 50% of it went away. So now I'm trying not to focus on it so much, because if it's psychological then thinking about it will probably make it worse. I think though that this is what they term the "splitting headache," and I really wonder that I can't remember having such a bad one before. It would seem that it's a pretty generic experience.

Oh...and if it really is psychological - I'm in pretty desperate need of a placebo. Lol. I remember feeling really bad one day and all of sudden this thought pops into my head: "I'm in desperate need of a placebo." But of course that is rather ironic because if I can think to think I need a placebo then probably I don't really need one.

As I thought to take the Tylenol I also thought of all the people in this world suffering from headaches or various physical pains without access to Tylenol. Really a very limited population of the earth has Tylenol or some variant of it. Or some native painkiller. Anyhow, I feel blessed to have Tylenol.

I also remember the last time I had a really bad sore throat, or an awful mouth sore. Whenever I'm in a lot of physical pain, I try to think it away by thinking of other things that could hurt more, and usually it helps quite well because it is a mental diversion. This does not work for my little sister or brother. When they're in pain and I suggest thinking of things that could hurt worse, they beg me to stop because they say it only makes the pain worse. But anyhow, there are all sorts of pains that I don't know about. The headache is new territory for me, and it makes me think that I have to be thankful because really there are myriad possible pains that I've never ever even experienced, much less am suffering from now. The last time I had a really bad sore throat, I told myself I would be perpetually thankful ever after whenever I was free of a sore throat. So I am thankful that I don't have a sore throat right now, or a mouth sore. A headache, splitting though it may be, is much the preferred option by far.

But I think that a headache is unique in that the territory it affects overlaps with your mind. So it's kind of difficult not to focus on it.

Maybe you have figured out by now that all this typing and all these thoughts are merely a diversion.

I just love music. I can't express how wonderful it feels to me to just resonate with music. That should be counted one of the 7 wonders of the world. (Did you know they just had people vote for the new 7 Wonders of the World? Yes - 70 million people on 07-07-07 for the new 7 Wonders of the World...I'm getting rather tired of 7. Before that day I thought it was a nice number but it's really beginning to feel cliched in modern use. It's symbolic but I don't think God meant it as an "auspicious" number. Nothing to be superstitious about.)

Today our family visited this one other church; my siblings were participating in a special program there. They had a professional pianist today. Oh my goodness - I hate crowds [of people I don't know], but after the service, this guy played some interlude-type music and I just wanted to stay in that room, even if what also filled that room was tons of people milling around.

Today has been a day of music. One of the things my siblings did was sing a song in the Karieng language - thy had been on a mission trip to teach English in a Karieng school. Oh, the song was so lovely - and so...Karieng. Their songs are so quaint, and so reminiscent of their culture. I marvel at how the smallest details in the melody make the music reflect their culture - a note here, and interval there...a lilt in the beat. Yesterday I had a voice lesson. And today, right when he got the chance (he's been gone for three weeks), my brother Ike gave me the latest Josh Groban CD. It was the sweetest thing ever. He spent the last of his savings on it. And he just randomly bought it for me. It wasn't really like a coming back gift, because he'd been upcountry - so this was something he could have gotten in Bangkok, but I guess he just saw it when he was in Chiang Mai (a relatively big town) to get on the train to come home to Bangkok...and bought it for me. And he couldn't wait to give it! Oh my goodness...:) I can't really express...yeah.

So I have lots of music going around my head, but in a nice way.

Wow. The headache is a lot better. I guess the Tylenol is kicking in. I seriously wonder whether Tylenol is a placebo.

God didn't have to create music. What a gift - what grace. He gave us music, colors (and shape and form and line), texture, taste, senses...

"O taste and see that the Lord is good." - verse - I need to look up the reference.

"You are beautiful beyond description - too marvelous for words; too wonderful for comprehension...like nothing ever seen or heard..." - praise song