Clutter. What is your take on clutter? For most of my life, clutter was something that happened to other people. Not that I didn’t have piles of laundry or stacks of dishes. I just didn’t notice. I really did not care. To me there will always be something more compelling than organizing a closet, a file system or my kitchen shelves.  But this afternoon, as I was walking out to a dentist appointment, I actually saw the piles of Pokemon cards on my son’s dresser, the stacks of clean clothes (well, they are clean!) on my son’s bed, the things lined up just inside my daughter’s room. Now, my biggest excuse for not having a perfect life, the fact that I am a stressed out Mom, left town when my two kids did.  I felt a momentary pang of something. Not guilt. But something. So, what would you do? If you’re me, you would pull the door closed on their bedrooms.

But, unfurling our lives is the key to clarity and good health, isn’t it? And while I can sometimes see so clearly where the overlap is between politicians, people and even family on two sides of the aisle, sometimes we can be blocked to things that are right in front of us. Or in this case, behind us, in our backs.

When I threw my back out doing yoga, I thought that can’t be right. Yoga is the cure when my back acts up. Especially when it’s yoga in a toasty room with padded flooring.It relaxes me just to think about it. So, after I threw my back out on vacation (another oxymoron) I went to my cousin’s chiropractor in Connecticut, Dr. Jill Capalbo, and here’s the shocking part. I never asked what was involved. She laughed so hard at my shock, and yes, it was shock, when a whole section of the drop table dropped and my back dropped or popped right along with it. For an ex-reporter who looooooves to ask questions, and lots of them, I never really asked what a chiropractor does. Thank God she was good natured when I naively tried to tip her. It was only afterwards, and after seeing the framed degrees on her wall, that I realized that she has five degrees and yes, one of them is a PhD. Note to self: Chiropractors are actual Doctors.

Yesterday, I had my first local adjustment. This time I had to hug the doctor. Dr. Matt doesn’t use a drop table but he does throw himself into his work, quite literally. My vertebrae were still popping. And again, the sound of it still surprises. Also surprising was how clear and bright eyed I felt after my adjustment. Things were just, well, a lot brighter.

But, the biggest surprise is how much clutter was in my back. Because I woke up this morning missing my kids so much. And really rather teary eyed at the fact that we haven’t seen each other in more than a month. It’s amazing what happens when you open a door…or when you open up the neural pathways that can get blocked when your back is out of synch. I gotta roll. I have to hit the kids’ rooms.