Bigger than a Sprained Ankle

Listen, the problems in the world are bigger than a sprained ankle. I’m not here to complain about my little woes as if they’re the most important things going on right now. I’m just not properly situated to publicly comment on politics or Supreme Court decisions or issues of racism or like… poverty and hunger. I feel like anything I could say about those topics would be too small or uninformed to do much good. The internet will gladly tell you they don’t need any more white ladies spouting opinions, and that’s probably true. So I’ll try to stay in my lane and not talk about the travesty of the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday or the fact that the New York Times ran 4 articles about Biden being old before even giving a baseline report of the monumentally detestable decision delivered by justices who apparently want the orange despot back in office.

I’m not even going to talk about that a little bit.

I’ll instead just talk about how much we need each other. We need connection more than ever. We need to KNOW our neighbors and care about them. We need to do the small things better. We need to raise our children so they’re know how much they are loved, regardless of accomplishments or accolades. But I’ll do mine, and you do yours. I’m not going to try to tell you how to do your thing because you are a different person than I am, and we are all doing our best. I know that. You know that. I see you doing that. Isn’t it just to exhausting to try to judge other people in order to deflect attention from the mess in our own backyards? I’m tired just thinking about it.

Back to the beginning: I sprained my ankle a couple of weekends ago. It hurt but wasn’t a world-ending injury, thankfully. It did mean that I would be smart to not run for a couple of weeks though, which basically meant my brain has been a disorganized mess since Saturday, June 22 at 9am. Running helps me put things in order of importance and allows my mind time to go through problems step by step. I generally finish a run feeling like I’ve solved something. I’ve been swimming and trying to erg and lift, but while those are all great for my body (especially the swimming), nothing calms the hamster like running. I went for a jog today and felt great, so I’m cautiously optimistic that I’m on the right road to recovery.

It’s just been a dark couple of weeks in my brain, and the events on the national scale haven’t helped. Trying to know where I fit in all this, figuring out what I can solve, deciding how I can keep my boys safe and what we can teach them through this experience – all of that has felt important these last few weeks, maybe more than ever. Just waiting to vote doesn’t seem like enough, and focusing on my own problems feels like how our country got into this situation, where people don’t know or listen to one another.

So be careful out there, folks. Watch out for changes in elevation in old sidewalks, leading to ankle sprains. Love the heck out of the people around you, and let them love you back. And be mindful of the internal battles raging in every mind you come across. We’re all going to need to find our way through the next few months the best we can, hopefully together.