pain

i've had a long and wonderful summer working outdoors with my body, the first time i've worked so hard physically in a decade. i realized a couple days ago that i haven't taken more than a couple days off in five months. my body has grown stronger, i look fit, muscled, which strokes my ego, but i'm also feeling the drain of so many days without restoration. i'm glad to know that i can go five months without much of a break, but i'm also noticing how much my will to persist obscured messages from my body, especially my arms. they're pretty much yelling at me today, saying something like, "dude, are you crazy? we're beat. stop!" and so i've listened and am listening more as they sing an achey dissonant chorus of muscular overtones that don't seem to emanate from any particular place, kind of like the subsonic hisses and rumblings produced by a dead dog lying on the pedals of a cathedral organ. if i listen closely, i can almost hear reverberation.