I have a theory.

You can go and go and go and go and then eventually your body starts acting up in the hopes of getting your attention.

I’m at that point right now.

In the past it was always my neck and shoulders and then eventually my back.

The pain would start with a stiff neck, the kind where you can’t turn your head properly and you walk around looking like someone stuck a pole down your back.

And it’s not even like you did anything different!

Then the tingling would start, from my tense shoulders down to my fingertips.

And then the pain, in my forearms, where this dull ache gets sharper and sharper till I had to bind my forearms with some of my hijabs to counter the pressure or something and get some relief.

And then, if I still didn’t slow down and get some rest, I’d get back spasms.

For a while I would always keep a pack of back pain medication in my purse to counter that.

Now, instead, when I get that first neck stiffness, I make a concerted effort to SLOW down! Take it more easy. Stop doing so much.

RELAX!

And as a result it usually doesn’t get any further than that.

So this time around, it wasn’t my neck and tingling.

It’s my foot.

It started aching on Sunday. I think I stepped on it weird or something. Didn’t think much of it. Yeah, it hurt, but I mostly ignored it when I did two presentations on Monday.

Then, coming back home from the presentations I thought, “Let me go to Curves, haven’t worked out for a while. Yeah, my foot is a little sore, but it should be okay. Want to get back into my fitness regime, and get rid of some of this weight.”

That was a mistake.

Came home and my foot was throbbing.

But yesterday was the worst.

And I finally got the message.

So I stopped. Didn’t hardly write this morning. Slept in as long as I felt like it, took my time getting up, and decided to go with leftovers for dinner.

Hardly no work today, and I feel the better for it.

My foot does too.

Got two presentations on Friday, they’re actually ‘half presentations’, I was invited to an event called Sister2Sister down in the Regent Park area, where I’ll be speaking to young girls struggling in inner city neighborhoods and trying to get out of their cycles of poverty.

A cause really near and dear to my heart! Gotta be rested up for it!

I’ve been hobbling around on crutches, trying to keep any pressure off my bum foot, and it’s helping. Worse comes to worse, I’ll take my crutches with me to the event.

Hopefully by Sunday, I’ll be okay. Last time this happened, it lasted about a week.

But what it really tells me is that I have to slow down. Take time to rest.

And I’m SO glad it didn’t happen while on the trip!

On the last leg of the journey I was interviewed by Raven Radio’s Ed Ronco. What a sweet guy! He came to the Blatchley Middle School class of grade six students to listen in on my presentations, then he taped two of the grade six girls Kaia and Joie’s interview of me afterwards.

You can listen to it here: http://www.kcaw.org/2013/04/08/khan-stories-build-bridges-of-understanding/