Copyrights reserved by the author. If you are in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' and read the details.Searching for that little bit of peace By J. G. Fabiano
I wish I could relax again. It's not that I have a stress filled life. I just miss the time in my life when I had little on my mind with the exception of what I had planned for the evening or how I was going to feed myself the next day. I guess this means I am missing my youth when I was not responsible for my own life. I placed that responsibility on my parents who always looked stressed. I am not alone with this problem. I read about hundreds of thousands of people taking medications in order to get through their day. These same people then take medications allowing them to sleep through the night. Since I am terrified of any prescription drugs I would never allow myself the convenience of feeling better according to some bio-technological breakthrough that has something to do with one's mind. Since I don't understand my mind now changing it is simply not an option. So, what does one do to relax? I have been told exercising relaxes one's mind and soul. I know this does a great job for one's body because every time I start an exercise routine I am usually found crippled on my couch lacking any energy to worry about why I am stressed out. My mind is then caught up with the reality pain has taken over where stress once stood. Needless to say exercise is not my first choice. One of my friends told me he relaxes by driving around his neighborhood. When he gets real stressed he hops into his SUV and drives until he calms down. I tried this a couple of times and it worked well. The only problem is when you drive trying to relax a part of your brain shuts down to the point you can still drive but you forget you are driving. Suddenly you wake up sitting behind your steering wheel trying to figure out if you are still in your home state. You then pray you didn't run over any dogs, cats, or young people in your quest to relax. This relaxation comes to an abrupt end when you have to fill the tank of your car twice as much as when you didn't use this mode of medication. The stress of an empty wallet has a tendency to overwhelm the stress of a busy mind. I've been told walking is another mode of relaxation. I am fortunate in that I live near a beach. About a week ago I drove down to the coast after work hoping to find that wonderful world of relaxation by contemplating nothing more important than myself surrounded by the open ocean, seagulls, and sand. Of course I forgot about the rabid dogs, the waste they deposit, and some very hungry gulls that miss the garbage left by past summer vacationers. I also discovered the people walking with me were walking for the same reason I was walking. This meant serial killers and psychopaths had little on them. As incredible as this sounds, I was told by one of my colleagues smoking was a great way to relax. I couldn't believe in my politically correct world I would even consider smoking as a means to relax. He then told me he meant cigars. He explained you never inhaled the smoke. You only played with it in your mouth as you wandered off into the trance of your choice. I was actually going to try it until I noticed a blackish bubble on the bottom of his lips. I knew I did not want to try chemo therapy as a means of relaxation. The other day I went to my doctor's office for a checkup. Since I am becoming older than I ever thought I would become I visit this office a few too many times. One comes to this realization when you can't find a magazine in the rack you haven't read. As I walked into the office I noticed the receptionist in a kind of trance fumbling with something in her hands. At first I thought a prescription salesman must have just left leaving some free samples but then I heard distinct snaps coming from her fingers. At this point she snapped into the present and asked how I was. I responded by asking how she was still wondering if my doctor received the same free prescriptions. I then saw what she was holding in her hand. It was a small piece of bubble wrap. Noticing I was looking at her hands she told me this was the best way to relax. All you had to do was roll a small piece of air filled plastic between your fingers popping the little bubbles placing your consciousness somewhere between Shangri-La and Utopia. I have now found the perfect means of relaxation. For the past few weeks whenever I feel tension or stress I pull out a small piece of bubble wrap and proceed to pop all the bubbles. I can't believe the answer to all my problems was delivered to me every time I received a package. In fact, I started to buy things I didn't need so I could replenish my stock. Of course, after the first time of being disappointed because the bubble wrap was replaced by Styrofoam popcorn I always asked the person I was buying the product from how they would ship it. No one ever asked why because I knew they knew why I was asking. The End.
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