Birthday Eve

I'm in the waiting room at a medical center waiting on my beloved while he is finally receiving the first phase of relief from back pain. It's been a long road to get here.

Isn't pain such an interesting thing? I am no stranger to pain, having spent the majority of my adult life dealing with it, in all it's multiplicity.

I have fought to have my pain validated. Saying that feels so very strange. Maybe validated isn't the right word. I think it's a hard thing to understand since it seems so individual.

Pain is defined as distressing feeling caused by intense stimuli. That sounds so elementary. Anyone who has ever been in pain knows there's so much more to it than that. If we only talk about physical pain, that too can be so much more than what you just feel physically.