I've been dealing with something new of late—oh such previous joys this newfound 42 has become! It has all the symptoms of a temporomandibular joint disorder. Hey, at least that rogue of mysterious pain on the bottom of my foot has vanished.

It happened about 1 or 2 weeks ago. I was talking with my head turned and I suddenly heard a pop and felt and ever brief excruciating zing of pain where my jaw connects to my head. Since then, I've popped it maybe 5 times total with no pain, but I've had a near ever-present soreness/sensitivity all along my left jaw line with various levels of intensity. Generally, I ignore it but other times it clamors maddeningly for attention. Sometimes, I'll take naproxen sodium...admittedly, I'm just not a fan of taking medicine.

Who knows where the injury came from: some say it comes from teeth grinding and stress. While I've caught myself a time or two grinding my teeth as I slept—which I have since began wearing the same type of mouthguard I wore in martial arts, I haven't felt any more stress than I typically experience, but as one of the main treatments I've found is stress management, well... BOY HOWDY am I ready to go with that! It parallels my initiative to add more meditation into my daily life. Some say to cut back on coffee, but C'MON, we both know that's a bunch of malarkey!

If I may borrow from BRCC: "Coffee, or die!"