Slick

I murmured, my soft sound acknowledging he'd spoken without disturbing the fragile peace that surrounded me.

"Rest," he said kindly. "We'll talk later." I snuggled into the table, now supine after being prone for nearly an hour as he coaxed tension from my muscles. He'd told me, as I was turning over amidst sheets nubby from so many washings, that my energy was stagnant. Something about how I had wide channels - a large capacity for happy energy - but that my limbs felt heavy and blocked.

I spared a moment's sympathy for my stagnant thighs and calves before drifting into my thoughts again. He continued to use long, smooth strokes until finding a sore spot. I'd feel fingers drift over the knotted muscle as it resisted the soothing pressure, finally hearing him bracing his weight to push constantly against it. He pinched my shoulders, forcing the tense muscles to melt between thumb and fingers.

"I have a headache," I'd told him as we sat facing each other in the beginning. Holding my right foot in both hands as it balanced on his thigh, he pushed his thumbs into my arch and applied pressure. "I'm grumpy and unsettled and I just can't seem to fix it."

He nodded, nodding toward my cup of tea in what I took for encouragement to sip. I obediently slurped at the hot, fragrant liquid, feeling a mellow sweetness linger at the back of my throat after I swallowed. "We'll see if we can't get you settled in your body again," he said, putting my right foot on the floor and reaching for my left. I pulled my robe tighter and nodded.

"I'm afraid to get up," I whispered when he gently told me we were finished. My headache was gone for the moment, finally easing after keeping me up part of last night and nagging at me throughout the day today. I felt calm, finally settled and serene, and dreaded the return to worry and stress and uncertainty.

"Take it slow," he cautioned, smiling when I blinked my eyes before looking at him while I stretched.

Now, oil showered from my skin and out of my hair, my head no longer aches. I'm still unsettled but less frightened about it. I need to get back to church, I decided, but I think 90 minutes getting my back rubbed was quite worthwhile.