Today has been a day of pain. It must be sign of my age! As I bent down to have a shave this morning I put my back out! I know it’s laughable (as Sarah and the children have not stopped laughing!), but it is flipping painful! I hope it improves tonight as I want to play volleyball tomorrow night!

I’m told it is all part of getting old. My other symptoms:

– having an eye test and being told I probably need glasses to read

– looking at your 11 year old son and remembering his birth like yesterday

– thinking about how to mark my 40th birthday later this year

– driving a people carrier rather than a sportier model

I have not yet got to the stage where I say ‘what are they singing about luvvy?’ when I see Top of The Pops or something similar. No doubt that will come. I fear that I will soon be seen loitering outside slipper and pipe shops and thinking how good I look in a blazer and brogues!

I thought I was comfortable with this whole becoming 40 thing – maybe I am not!

It’s amazing how much things slow down when you are in pain out of a necessity. It’s amazing how pulling one little muscle has a major effect on the rest of the body. As I sit here typing at the end of the day, I can feel stressed muscles aching in ways they do not usually because they have been compensating for the one I pulled.

It’s cheesy, but today has shown the reality of the church as the body and how it aches and strains when one part is injured or unable or unwilling to do its bit. It has reinforced to me that now I am no longer director of the local para-church organisation that I have no real excuse for not getting involved in my local church, which just confirms what I have been thinking really.

I was tempted to take the day off but I had an exciting diary today so made use of the painkillers and went to 2 exciting meetings.