Member-only story
The 7:44 Miracle
The Perception and Experience of a Natural Miracle
I squinted, then peered through my murky morning lenses, as pain pulsed through my lower back. It was sore and it felt constricted, as if a giant python had wrapped itself around my torso, slowly and meticulously crushing my vertebrae. The pounding in my lower back was an evolving source of discomfort that steadily encroached on other previously pain-free regions of my body. Now, tightness had spread to my legs, shoulders, and neck. Throughout the night I searched, to no avail, for a position that would relieve the pressure in my back. Finally I settled into the posture of last resort, the one we all revert to eventually, the fetal position. However, this was only marginally effective in diminishing the pain.
I opened my eyes, and the clock on the wall said 7:44 AM. I was barely awake. Like dead weight, I dropped myself off the side of the bed, as a restless ship would an anchor. I landed on the floor with a thud that commissioned a new surge of sharp spikes throughout my middle-aged body. Now on the ground, I took one more agonizing turn so that I could be flat on my back. I put my feet up on the bed, still laying on my back, waiting patiently for the combination of my posture, the hard floor, and gravity to redress the balance in my spinal column.
