I had just spent a week alone in the woods of rural Washington. I had been in need of some peaceful time because of an uncertain career transition I was facing.
While I was packing up to drive back home to Seattle, I started feeling twinges of pain in my ear. I had been swimming the night before, and hadn't been able to get the water to drain out of that ear. In the past this had led to an ear infection that had lasted for months. I was afraid this might be the case again. On the same side as the painful ear, the skin on my neck and shoulder also felt very irritated.
I wanted to pray for healing—not just physical healing, but for that feeling of peace about my personal situation that I still needed. I've been reading Science and Health over the past few years, and I've learned that physical difficulties are related to fear and have a mental cause. Since the affected areas of my body were inflamed, the word inflammation came to mind. It's one of the words Mrs. Eddy used in relation to fear in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 586). These physical symptoms, I realized, were caused by fear, not by river water. Then the condition no longer impressed me so much.
