Resentment Bit my Little Toe

        I had just hung up the phone after returning a call to an insurance agent. I really knew better. The thing was I returned a form in a postage paid envelope offering to send me information about changes to medicare. I really did know better than to mail that form to them. So I can't kid myself into pretending that I was surprised that instead of the promised information I got the phone call from the agent. I knew he wanted to sell me something, and I knew I wasn't likely to need the insurance he would try to sell me. Nevertheless, I let him use more time than I intended telling me how I could expect to have unreimbursed expenses - that at my age I was likely to be hospitalized and then moved to a skilled nursing facility which medicare would not cover. I managed to extract myself from this call by letting him know just how adequate my coverage happens to be. He knew that coming to "spend twenty minutes with me" explaining the medicare law would not result in a sale. And what of the promised booklet that I had agreed to have his company send me? It might not even exist! Well, if I had any doubt that I ended this call in a state of resentment, it was my fourth toe on my left toe that made it obvious. Why do I say that? Well, that's the toe that belongs to the gall bladder meridian, and the emotion associated with gall bladder is resentment. The way I often describe this? The wood element's emotion is anger and kindred feelings, like frustration and irritation. The gall bladder is an organ that looks a lot like an old fashioned wine sack fashioned from a goat's bladder. Just like wine kept too long will turn to vinegar, suppressed anger that has not been transformed turns to resentment.
        In this instance, as soon as i hung up the phone I stood up, intending to cross the room to mount the stairs to my office. And as soon as I rose to standing, my fourth toe screamed in pain almost knocking me off my feet. Since I had just concluded this phone call, and was aware that I was annoyed at the bait and switch, the attempt to reach gullible elders and make a sales pitch based on predictions of negative health outcomes, I made the connection between my painful toe and resentment and the gall bladder meridian more quickly than I might otherwise have done. And as soon as I made that connection, the pain resolved. I suppose that being aware of the way that resentment affected me allowed me to release it. It helped that I could envision myself writing this little article about the impact of resentment on my poor toe.