It’s 8 days now since my dental bone graft. I stopped taking my pain meds on Monday, a few days early, and I feel great! The site of the surgery is still swollen but there is no pain. I’m so grateful to be healthy. Grateful for a really good dentist, and grateful for access to solid, quality nutrition, delivered right to my door, even. Grateful for friends and check-in messages. Thank you. I love you.
But I have been going stir crazy, not being allowed to exercise. No yoga, no running. My two mainstays. And I understand why, in both instances… it’s the exact reason I do them: they jack my heart rate. They make me FEEL.
So, I just started walking. I walk and walk and walk and then when you think I’m sick of walking, I walk some more. I can walk all day. I love walking. Part of why I love running, is the particular foot placement, the foot strike, the very purposeful and driven action of sending energy down, to feel it rebound up, and to fly with it. Use it. Recycle it.
And walking, I’ve noticed is the same. You have a lot to study in your body while you’re walking. A lot to maybe translate from real life into movement. A lot to chew on. A lot to burn off. A lot to sit with.
My muscles though. I don’t have the muscle memory for walking! Not in fitness shoes and not for fitness purposes and not for 2 hours at a stretch. Hello lower shins! Hi funny new part of my quads, didn’t see you sitting there! There’s a party in my calves that’s never been there before, and I don’t own a car… I walk everywhere… I’m surprised at the different set of muscles I need, to do this simple thing that I actually do all the time. I just mostly do it in flip flops and at a leisurely pace.
Sitting here with aching legs, I notice I’m feeling a sense of gratitude toward adversity also. As weird as that might sound. I am forced to do things differently right now, to honor my weaknesses and find new avenues. In doing so, new intelligence is formed, new muscle memory created. New comfort zones are outlined, and new respect is born.
Walking. Who knew?
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