WHAT AM I LIKE AT REST?

I had to go to a chiropractor earlier this year. Stiff neck. He worked on me a couple times and suggested I get a massage before seeing him. To loosen me up a little.

So for a few sessions, his assistant would give me a massage for 30 minutes, concentrating on my neck and shoulders. Then I would go in to see him.
I guess about the third time, he laid me on the table after my massage, and started to make his adjustment.

“Relax” he said.

“Relax?” I thought. I’d just had a 30 minute massage and he is telling me to relax.
And that’s when I noticed it. I was wound up like an atomic alarm clock. I was so tense laying there I could hardly even breathe. I let out my breath and tried to relax.
“That’s better” he said.
So it makes me wonder what I am really like “at rest”.  I like to think of myself as happy, kind and patient. I like to think I’m smart. But where do I fall on a sliding scale on any of those things unless I consciously give it my best effort?

When I try really hard, and when I know patience, tolerance and calm will be required for a phone call to AT&T. I do pretty good. For a while. I was on the phone with them a few weeks ago. Its like they have their own language and symbols, and for 40 minutes I was keeping the volume down. If things start to escalate, things quickly fall apart.  But it reached a point I was practically screaming.

The poor girl. She said “Mr. Renfro, there is no need to yell at me”
I said “I’m not yelling AT you, I’m just yelling!
And we both laughed, and things were better.