by Student Andrea Brachfeld
My story is one of an opening to compassion and to the heart.
On April 24th I was up at what I call my “pandemic” cabin, as I bought it when we were in the beginning throes of the Covid event. I had been in contact with some people there and they invited me to go kayaking with them. As I was yearning for human connection and more than anything, the outdoors and definitely missing nature, I immediately accepted the invite. This would be the first time I went kayaking so I was very excited! I went to Debra’s house to help her load the kayaks as she was loaning me one of hers. She asked me how my upper body strength was and since I had been working out I quickly replied that it was great! There was a slight stirring in my solar plexus chakra but I ignored it as I was too excited about this new adventure! Perhaps there was a message I was ignoring? We loaded the kayaks and off we went to the lake 10 minutes away. We met several other people from the community there and the day was developing rather nicely. We took the kayaks down and I dragged mine down to the riverbank. I hopped in and within seconds acclimated myself to the ebb and the flow of paddling and to the tides of the river. It was beautiful and exhilarating being on the lake in open air without masks away from the cement gardens of Jersey City. Others commented on how quickly I adapted and my kayak was moving along nicely. That stirring came in once again but I ignored it. When we had paddled at least a mile, we turned back and mounted the kayaks again on the car. All had gone well! It was great! That was a Saturday. On Monday I started to feel something funny in my arm and neck. I did some yoga, took a bath and figured it would just go away. But it didn’t go away. It kept getting worse until I couldn’t drive, get dressed, practice my flute or virtually do anything except lay down. My mind went to, “How can I make this go away?”, so I started consulting healers, went to my acupuncturist, chiropractor and, at last resort, called my doctor. Nothing relieved the pain and at this point it was 24/7! My Indian friend even suggested a muscle relaxer which reeked of onions so I smelled like perpetual onion soup!!