One thing I’m not appreciating about getting older is that the pains that I was able to accept and ignore in my youth now disable me.

I was more than half asleep a few minutes ago when the pain in my hands and feet and knees broke through the determined solace of sleep.

One ache at a time I think my mind could have brushed aside or integrated into the dreamscape without the distress of waking.
To many aches and my subconscious rebels, I find myself awake, chilled, stiff, burning, many needles stabbing at seemingly random joints.

How can molten liquid be frozen stiffness?