"There are angels in your angles."

As much as I'd love to wax poetic about the arrival of spring and share pictures of mating bugs and blooming buds, I have a headache. Went to bed with it, woke up with it, can't shake it. I'd like to blame the bag of dark chocolate covered almonds I ate yesterday, but stress eating and the ensuing headache are symptoms of a larger issue. Both are a reaction to the stress of my absolute powerlessness to help a friend in crisis.

So I took some ibuprofen, climbed into bed, and put a pillow over my head. I imagined possible conversations I could have with my friend, and positive words I could focus on, when the following question hit me: "What is your power?"

We've discussed weaknesses and limitations until we're nearly broken. We've talked endlessly about the problem and potential solutions, but what about power? What is his power? How can he exercise it?

But ultimately, the question was intended for me. What is my power? What can I do? Am I exercising my power by crawling into bed in the middle day?

This morning on Fresh Air, Dave Davies spoke with Jonah Lehrer about one of my favorite topics, creativity. (Their discussion was a great follow up to the TED talk I watched last night: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity.) Creativity is an excellent problem solving tool, as expressed in the following example from Lehrer's book, Imagine: two groups are asked to come up with imaginative ideas. The first group is instructed to pretend they are seven year olds, the second group is not. The first group comes up with more and better ideas.

Would a seven year old under stress willingly climb into bed before bedtime? Heck no! They would jump on the bed and bounce off the walls. I've seen it a million times. So even though I want a new bed, instead of jumping on it, I got out of it, turned on my favorite Pandora station (oh, how I love the Decemberists), picked up my heaviest kettle ball, and started swinging.

For a few beautiful moments, my head was filled with musical word play and the throbbing subsided. The muscles in my thighs and arms worked in concert, rhythmically returning me to my center of gravity with each swing and squat. There were angels in my angles as I exorcised the demon in the details.

And then I made my favorite power smoothie:

Carrot, Orange and Ginger Smoothie

1 large carrot

1 orange, peeled

1 square inch of ginger

1 cup of water

Blend well. Drink. I swear this drink keeps me healthy and sane (most of the time).

Spring has arrived with all her creative power. I'm going to pretend like I'm a seven year old and enjoy it. Hopefully I can convince my friend to do the same.