I had a tooth extracted and was totally undone for a few hours. I’d had my wisdoms out 45 years ago, and the memory was nothing compared to what I experienced this time. It took a couple of hours post-extraction to stop rocking and twisting about. It actually and a tad unpleasantly reminded me of uncontrolled movements I’d made after a serious sunburn over-stimulated some back nerves.
After a couple of hours of constant motion my first pair of iburprofin gave enough relief to be relatively still. The head pain eased off and my eyes started working again. I put down a damp cloth I’d been holding to my face. I opened up a sketch book lying by my couch and jotted these shapes and outlines down quickly and without plan.
It was so comforting to do so. No worrying about pencil control or compositional nuance. Simply running the pencil gently past the heated pain sloshing inside my head, pushing the pain about until it settled down. I had an image of a grumpy cat turning around and around and finally settling into a cushion somewhere it could grumble to itself. I genuinely came out the other side ahead of the painful game of Crashed on the Couch. I now have a fun new drawing in my sketch book that is actually a record of a substitution of awareness. I took up a creative act that in the moment sidestepped the fresh pain of my tooth extraction. It was lovely to experience a creative act that let pain and anxiety step back. It reminded me of box breathing for anxiety only more fun and productive.
*****
More couch time update.
I really put in couch time. At least a couple of days. I am constantly amazed at how the old bod finds ways to show me time is fleeting. Any sketchbook in my reach as I sat ensconced in my corner might be opened and a drawing is put under the pencil again. Which has brought me to share this follow-up to my initial whimsy sketch.
Here is the now completed whimsy “Story Time”.
