The Messages

He had been sitting in front of his laptop for at least four hours by now. He was so involved in this project that he did not notice his back pain. He stretched a bit when he noticed it and touched his back as if it would relieve the pain.

‘Hey, is something wrong?’, asked his co-worker.

‘No, not really. I just have been sitting for a long time.’

This was not true. He had been having this pain much more often now but he just did not have the time to go get it checked. He did not want to fall behind in the project, so he postponed a visit to the doctor.

Since his pain did not get any less, he decided to stand up and walk out of the office and maybe get some coffee. The walk did help a bit but the pain was still there. He checked the time and decided that he needed to go back to the office and continue working. So, he sat for another three hours.

When he was going home after work, he was almost unable to walk because of the pain. He had to call his boss to ask for a sick day, which he had not done in the past few years. Whenever he felt a bit sick, he ignored it and continued working with the sickness. No one noticed it.

He went to the doctor the next day. It was not good news. He had to completely change his schedule for a few months the least because he needed surgery. He thought he would work from home in that time.

But he did not. This surgery had done something to him. He was finally listening to his body’s messages. He was hearing its screams. He was befriending it. So he called his boss and said he would not come back. Why? Because he just did not want to.