Saturday afternoon we'd bought a bunch of annuals and brought them home to put our planters together for the front porch.  This is one of my favorite things to do: plant young flowers and watch them fill out as the months go by.  In order to get closer to the shelf we were working on,  I bent down and moved a five-gallon pot of dirt out f the way and TWANG! felt my back twist.

I had just had two injections a month ago to help me deal with my lower back pain and now I had invited it right back in with that careless move.  Wow.  We had a party to attend that afternoon out of town, and my back got progressively worse as the time went by.  By Tuesday night, I couldn't walk.  Bed rest, muscle relaxers, ice and heat were my weapons of choice.  Then, when it got a little better, I made my first appointment with a chiropractor.  I can't say I got any immediate relief from the two visits I made to him but I am going to complete the four weeks of treamtent he thinks will correct the problem as much as chiropractic can do.

After two days and two nights of almost complete bed rest I came back to work.  I am fighting through the pain as I sit here but it's made better by your phone calls and requests.  And today is the Pink Carnation Sale by the Wabash Valley Breast Cancer Survivors, which puts my discomfort in perspective.  I have such dear wonderful friends who have won their battle with breast cancer and a few who, sadly, have lost the fight.

Sometimes I truly believe God makes things like this happen: that this sale of carnations would be going on the day I came back to work, that I have the good sense to embrace His messages to me, that what ails me can pale by comparison to what others must endure.  Life is a challenge, but it is also a gift.   I wish you a great weekend, and if it applies, A HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.