Cracked - a lesson from my temporary handicap

I have had a line of thinking swirling around my head for a couple weeks now, but I stall because I can't find the right picture to put in the post.  Lame, huh?  They are not really earth shattering thoughts, but I must let them out of my brain to give it a rest.

At the end of June I had foot surgery to repair a torn tendon (the Doc said actually it was shredded - um, thanks?) and realign my foot because said tendon hadn't been doing its job.  It meant I was in a hard non-weight bearing cast for about 6 weeks, using crutches or a handy dandy wheeled knee walker scooter deelio to get around.  I ended up going back to work after about 3 weeks.  That in itself wasn't a big deal, but I work at the Pentagon, which comes with it's own logistical challenges.

As I started commuting to work in my temporary one-leged, scooter way, I got much more in-tuned to surfaces. You walk around all day, up and down stairs, on and off metros, down to the mail box and back, and hardly give the surfaces you are walking on a thought.  Now on my scooter or on crutches, the status of the surface was everything.  The slight incline from the parking garage to the metro station.  The gap between the platform and the metro car.  The threshold at the entrance to the bathroom (raised, why?). The terraced area around the swim meet pool. A large crack in the sidewalk, an extra ledge...all these became obstacles.

While I said the Pentagon posed it's own unique logistical issues (like having to swipe in and out of entrances when I no longer had a free hand), after a few days I learned the most direct, elevator friendly, crowd free routes to get around.  And the floors are soooooo smooth, so I could really fly on my scooter. And then KA-CHUNK! I would cross the threshold in the hallway right near my office.  After a couple days I loved making that loud sound, and waking everyone in the hallway up from their morning stupor.  Then it hit me - the threshold was a crack too - but an intential one.  Why would there be an intential crack in the world's most powerful looking building?  Hmmmm, I pondered.

Then it hit me - intentional nor not - cracks are good.  Cracks let you breathe, grow and change.  Without cracks a chick stays in the egg, a seed stays in it's husk, a building over time becomes less solid.  So I have been trying to think of challenges and day-to-day stressors as cracks - extra space to let you grow, move, flex.

My foot is on the mend - I am almost full time in normal shoes without any extra brace or boot.  My physical therapy, which I was LOVING,  is on temporary hold due to insurance paperwork issues.  Sigh.  Cracks.  So I joined the gym (finally) and did what I could on my own.

It was a frenetic weekend for Team Auld - two soccer games - one in Columbia, MD, one in Alexandria, VA, and a Cub Scout camp out in between at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, VA.  Total miles: 156.  And it was an awesome weekend - two wins, and perfect camping weather, and Greg got home from the west coast in time for the second soccer game.  Hope you had a great one, too!