Square One

The crisp air pulled at his jacket. Weeks of inactivity had resulted in a creeping softness in dealing with the outside air temperature. Back in January before the injury, he would have welcomed the 53 degree weather which, at the time, would have felt like a warm tropical breeze. Lethargy had erased that perspective, and the breezy gusts of air pushed into his skin with a damp chill that made him question his fortitude.

The old girl of the waterfront still stood the watch as the sun cracked over the horizon like an oozing egg yolk.

Old Girl of the waterfront at sunrise

She hadn't seen this walker for awhile, but the scene had passed in front of her bow more than once over the previous three decades. Returning from an injury, the first tentative steps betrayed the lack of confidence in the healing that had been happening during the walker's absence. Stepping out, his gait wasn't quite right. Not so much limp as awkward rolling strides manifesting the doubt in the foot. Would the bone crack? Would the ligament pull away? A tentative slowness ruled the day.

As the steps rolled on, some level of confidence returned. His senses became more in tune with the air and the trail. A little more than halfway out, he crossed a bridge.

Crossing the bridge back into the land of routine - Yards Park, DC

The pop didn't happen. The fire didn't return. The breeze scoured away a bit of the softness and the nerves in his hands and legs began the process of settling in to a more natural state. Action, as it always does, exfoliated the discomfort and pushed a bit of toughness back into his core.

The world was there for exploring. The color began to return.

A new adventure in Yards Park

He'd slowed down quite a bit. His thirst for distance and pace had yet to reawaken, but the first steps out from square one had been taken. Another day had passed into the books, and a new one was just over the horizon.

A Changed Approach has Resulted in Unexpected Breakthroughs

A couple of different mental exercises that I've been fussing around with over the last several weeks have been yielding some unexpected and apparently positive (so far anyway) results. Quite a bit of this change has been "forced" upon me by the foot injury, but some of it has been a conscious decision to pursue something quite a bit different from my routine.

The change that's been introduced from the outside has been welcome. Of course this welcoming outlook did not happen initially, but like most change imposed from outside I've come to terms with it.  That aspect of the differing routine is not particularly interesting to me since it is largely the "same old, same old" story of adaptation to my environment.

The deliberate decision making that led to chasing after something completely different has been the much more interesting, and frankly, rewarding process. I'm really not completely clear on why over the last several weeks I decided to begin some relatively simple experiments. Some of it was my exposure over the last several months to the TED Talks. Some of it was borne of frustration with situations that I don't have much influence and almost zero control over how the outcome plays out. Some of it was generated  from a re-emerging foundation of "playful" adventure that has been left to atrophy over the course of some challenging times.

One thing that I've observed as this reawakening has been manifesting itself is that it is building on some of the very foundational changes that have arisen out of the more disciplined routines that I developed over the last year or so.  Those routines have laid in an infrastructure from which this more fun-filled approach to leaning my shoulder into the experience of living can draw experience and sustenance as I peek out fomr behind some of the berms that I've accumulated in the past.

It's really been rewarding and fun, and it's given me a renewed sense of confidence moving forward. I don't know what the outcomes will be, but I believe that I'm prepared to meet them as they unfold.