Things I took for granted once upon a time
August 30, 2022
1. Being able to work off adrenaline.
There’s nothing like finding your second wind for shaking off feelings of inadequacy, frustration, and even rage. Your whole week seems to have gone sideways and downhill? Grab the dog and go for a run.
Not an option when your knees give out and you’re staggering home, clutching the dog’s back for support, after 100 meters. Both embarrassing and totally not uplifting.
2. Going carless.
Back in my college days and well into my first post-grad job, I shared a car with my parents. We’d work out a driving schedule where one parent would drop me at public transit, or a friend and I would carpool, and I’d pay for half the gas and parking.
If I wanted to pick up a food or a thing, I’d grab my flip-flops and trot over to the Target or Trader Joe’s a mile away. No problem.
This is both a physical health and a walk friendly neighborhood limitation.
3. Sleeping without incurring injury
My 40s may turn out to be a good decade but so far, peeking over the horizon, I’m not so sure about that. I can pull muscles in my sleep. I don’t think that’s entirely a fibro thing!
4. The innate trust that people are inherently good or caring
I’ve never actively trusted people but I passively assumed that people would do things like AVOID A PLAGUE. What a horrible way to be proven wrong.
My people are great. People in general? I dunno, man.
5. Loving food.
The endless drudgery of meal preparation in these past three years has done a real number on my enjoyment of planning, cooking and eating meals. It’s no fun anymore and many days I dread having to eat yet again. Give me a meal bar or a tablet or a drink and be done with it.
:: Anything y’all miss these days?
Mine are less hard than yours. But here they are:
I miss seeing invitations to gatherings as happy opportunities, rather than threats that I have to weigh and try to mitigate.
I miss being okay with travel in general. And going to the library and the rec center nearly every weekend.
I miss any of my family coming down with a cold and not having to go down a what-if path of potentially lifetime effects while testing and watching test results.
I miss my old workdays, when I was the only person at home and my husband was in the office. Interacting with him throughout the day is good for our relationship… but it also pulls focus from my work to-dos.
Oh yes to ALL of these!
I popped a muscle in my back this summer by- get this- sitting on the bed. I wasn’t even moving. I miss not doing that. (I have a hypermobility condition and it’s been like this since I was ten.)
Oh my gosh, yes! Related: the ability to sleep without hurting oneself! That, I deeply miss too.
I injured myself (pre covid times) putting on a suit jacket for a meeting. I had to get PT for this!
Bodies are so rude!
Also: if you injure yourself and your GP says “let it rest, wait a month” when you go in for a referral for rehab, tell your GP to burn in hell and give you the damn referral
GOOD TIP.