As you may have already guessed from reading these posts, doing this kind of work is full of surprises and is not always easy.

Yesterday I woke up with the most massive migraine, which completely waylaid any conscious plans that I might have had for the day. This was strange for me, as I very rarely get migraines, and in the past when I have they have been severe.

I spent a lot of the day lying on my bed, giving conscious attention to shooting sensations coursing through my body. There was very little else I could do to manage the pain. Most other things hurt too much.

In a way, this day came as a real blessing. I realized throughout the course of the day that during the time when I had been living in Rwanda, I had really let some of the mindfulness aspects of own self-care go to the side.

Yesterday was a wake-up call for me to return to a much more deliberate stance to my own connection with myself. Like the “sticks of compassion” that monks here use to whack their disciples on the back when they fall asleep while meditating, this message of compassion came firmly and loudly.