Schedule Indigestion

Recently my husband tried something new when feeding his bearded dragon. Bob really likes strawberries and always picks them out of his salad first, but he also needs insects. Bob seems to really enjoy eating crickets, but he still seemed to be hungry. Paul decided to try giving him superworms. Bob devoured them – six or seven of them. He then spent the rest of the day laying flat over the heat mat on the warm end of his tank. He was not his normal, curious self. He didn’t climb his logs to sleep in a position that looks totally uncomfortable to us, but seems to be Bob’s favorite bed. He just laid there.

Paul did some research and learned that a dragon that eats too much can get what is called Terminal Indigestion in which they lay with their hind legs extended behind them, becoming paralyzed from not being able to digest the amount of food they have eaten. Paul began to worry about his beloved pet he has had only a short time.

Many of us have had occasions where we eat too much and feel that we are unable to move. Especially at holiday feasts and pot-luck picnics. We enjoy our good food and don’t pay attention to when we need to stop.

Sometimes our schedules can be the same way. We run the kids to school and sports events, volunteer for worthy causes, maintain our social life and still try to spend quality time with our families and work to support them. Sometimes this cycle can be hard to break. When I first started working overnights, I found it hard to continue all the activities I had done as a stay-at-home mom for 6 years. I attended MOPS and BSF and took my kids to storytime at the local library, but we no longer attended the community center playgroup. Eventually we had to drop other activities.

My schedule developed its own form of “terminal indigestion” and could not digest all that I had committed it to. My participation in PTA and other activities became sporadic, rendering me useless to the cause. I did not spend the ideal amount of time on my BSF lessons, short-circuiting my learning and my time with God. I often prepared on Wednesday afternoon the lesson I was teaching to the kids at church that night. When given the chance, I crashed for 12 hours straight on my nights off.

Bob did not eat too many superworms and develop Terminal Indigestion. He was just using the heating pad to help digest them. Healthy Bearded Dragons do sometimes lay in the same position as when one has Terminal Indigestion, and that is what Bob was doing. Paul is careful to not feed his dragon so many superworms at a time. And I try to keep my schedule clear of too many things. But sometimes, I still feel a little indigestion in my schedule.