Did you know that drawing can cure stomach aches? Me either! But apparently it does. At first I thought I might have had a case of the New Year Blahs. Except that would have been out of character for me. The other idea that came was too awful – a sudden onset of gluten intolerance. I would hate that.

But then I got to thinking about December 28th when I tripped. That awful feeling when you know you’re going down and there’s absolutely NOTHING you can do about it. I said, “Oh Noooo!” And down I went, still repeating, “Oh Noooo!” But aside from a slight hand sprain that was gone the next day, and an invisible soreness on my left cheekbone, also gone the next day, and glasses slightly bent out of shape, there was no physical damage.

But my confidence plummeted.

For the next few days I changed from low-heeled boots to boots with practically no heel at all. I walked slower. I was more deliberate in my steps. And then I forgot about it and got on with things having to do with New Years.

And then the new year began. And the stomach aches came. It was hard to get anything done when all I wanted to do was lie down and rest and watch movies or read. But then I had an idea. Why not draw a picture of myself tripping? Losing control. That flying feeling before the “Oh Noooo!” began. To have something to go by I Googled images of people tripping. (I had to include the word ‘over’ so Google wouldn’t think I was looking for pictures of people on acid.) And believe it or not, just by looking at the pictures and planning my drawing I started feeling stronger.

So then I wondered why that was. And I thought, well, by drawing it I would be taking control of my experience. I would be the orchestrator, as it were. I’d lost control when I tripped, and now I was taking the control back. I’d said Noooo when I fell, and now I was saying Yessss.

(This is actually the subject matter of my second memoir which I’m almost finished with – working-title, The Nancy Who Drew the Way Home. It’s about the seven years in my 30s when I painted pictures of all the feelings I was going through, and what that led to. It was something positive.)

It’s now been 24 hours since conception and execution of the drawing, and the stomach ache has not returned. (Yessss!)

Now here’s the postscript. The real kicker. Between starting the drawing and finishing it, I went out to do a few errands. Then, as I was walking home, crossing the street, I almost got hit by a car. I had the light. I was walking on the painted cross-walk when this big SUV suddenly swerves around the corner. But I was nimble. I was quick! I jumped out of the way and it missed me by inches. The driver stopped and let me vent a few minutes, but I was alright. He said, “Are you alright?” And I had to admit that I was. So he drove on and I continued home, thinking about what it all meant, coming to the conclusion that it was proof how nimble and quick I could be. I saw I had a choice to think how awful to be almost hit by a car, or, Wow, wasn’t that something the way my body lurched so handily out of the way! So now my confidence is doubly restored. 2016. Bring. It. On…

P.P.S. I was also glad I’ve been doing the Emerald Alignment, which at the end has you visualizing a blue band of protection around yourself. Comes in very handy. Here’s the link if you’d like to try it yourself: http://www.rainbowlightfoundation.net/the-emerald-alignment/