Years ago I was into drawing the connections between different objects in my room. I’d map them, usually using myself as the starting point.
Tonight as I lay in bed trying to sleep, the coiled ball of pain that sits in my back felt like the starting point of a new map so I started to draw it.
In ten steps this drawing shows how the pain goes from my body into the air via my duvets, mattress, floor, walls, a foam pony, a wooden walrus and a box of business cards.
1) My pain
2) Spine, brain, duvet, my t-shirt, heat pack, my pants and my box of drugs
3) Memory foam, pillow and second duvet
4) Mattress, my padded gloves, a bottle of water, my emergency buzzer and my back brace
5) Bed, mattress variator and a wall-pad
6) The floor and another wall-pad
7) Four walls, a cupboard, desk, wheelchair, cot, door, trainer, table, bra, t-shirt and armchair
8) Paperwork, filing, drawers, light, window and ceiling
9) A foam pony, a framed geranium, a walrus, a box, a lamppost and my celling lights
10) My piggy bank, a wooden tree, a photo and my business card box
…and then into the air.
Imagining the pain running out of my body and into the air somehow makes me feel more settled.