My blogging has been seriously hampered by staying at home for the last week with a painful back and leg that did not allow me to walk or sit in front of a computer screen for longer than 2 minutes. A year ago I injured my back and it seems that swelling has re-occured and is aggravating a nerve. Last weekend it was very aggravated!

While it was difficult staying at home when I wanted to be out, lying on my back and not even being able to read for very long (amazing how drugs make words move around pages!) I was ‘forced’ to contemplate and pray. I say forced but this is not quite the case. There was nothing else to do and so this is what my brain found itself doing; it was a bit like it going back to its default position – it could not grab any new information and so chose to revisit stuff it had already stored away in various places.

What surprised me most during that time was how fast time went. I quite enjoy silence and so time dragging was never going to be a problem but I was surprised how quickly I could be lost in thoughts, or reflection, and enjoy traveling down the roads my mind sent me. I found myself traveling alone lanes and tracks that I had forgotten about and on more than one occasion even racing down a motorway that I had forgotten all about! It was quite easy to become lost in myself.

This space brought to mind new things. These ‘new’ things were ideas I had had in the past, conversations with people of another time, quotes and ideas that I had read months and years ago. It was not that I had forgotten these things – they were simply stored in parts of my brain to be accessed at a later date. My problem with that is, that as a person that loves to read and accumulate information and ideas, that later date to re-visit stuff never seems to come.

Essentially I have had a 10 day trip down memory lane and remembered a lot of stuff that I think has a bearing on, and will influence, what I am currently involved in. Due to my mind trip I will be returning to familiar places tomorrow with fresh eyes that have remembered old stuff.

So … what have I learned from this experience. An important lesson, I believe, is that study is not just about accumulating new information, or reading a new article or getting hold of the latest book. Study is about reviewing what I already know about a subject and considering how this relates to my current experience and thinking. I have become aware that I have neglected this side of study.

Hopegully I can remember that as I return to what I hope will be a full week of work (those of you that pray … please offer the odd prayer here and there fro my back and leg – cheers!)