The Curse Of The Long Legs

November 15, 2022 

While I might be one of the shorter people in my family I was still gifted the long legs. Long legs that come with an incredibly long gait. If I were a horse I would be a Tennessee Walking Horse because my walk covers a lot of ground very quickly. 

Having stayed home from work today on account of a weird ear issue I spent the morning trying to get my inner acoustical bits to balance out. 

After a great deal of snot what expelled my ears started to sound a little more like they’re supposed to. Feeling a little bit on the mend I thought I would go grab a couple bays of hay. 

I loaded the hay onto the hay cart and began pulling it towards the truck. First I stepped with my left foot, soaking in how wonderful my body was starting to feel.  Just in this moment I was finally felt a little better. 

For my functional fitness time this morning I chose the hula hoop. My ribs were feeling loose and limber, my shoulders free, my spine undulating as it was intended to do. My ears were clear, I could breathe through my nose and my head didn’t hurt. 

I’ve been working so hard for over a year now to make the changes I need to feel good. And in this moment I felt good. I felt relieved that I finally had a breakthrough. 

Then I stepped with my right foot. Pain shot up my leg and deep into my foot. Thick searing pain that stole the breath from my lungs.

My heels have been crushed by the misplaced hooves of many horses over my 30 years of equine experiences. None of that pain even came close to the pain that the edge of this steel cart had just inflicted. 

I gasped and did the Holy Crap That REALLY Hurt Face. Then tried to take another step. NOPE. 

I stood there, breathing it out for what seemed like an eternity, glancing around to make sure that no one saw my ridiculous injury.

I managed to load the feed while hobbling. I drove down the road, the mist wrapping itself around the shores of the Pacific Ocean, hiding the beaches in a beautiful fog. It was truly majestic and I would have loved to stop and take more pictures but my entire leg was throbbing with pain. 

I always forget how much pain sucks the life out of everything, I wanted to go to bed and feel sorry for myself but instead I put my foot up on some ice and set about my writing. At the moment it’s frozen and the pretty colors have started. Tomorrow’s a new day and just in case I have started to think about ways to move my body without putting weight on my feet for tomorrow's functional fitness time.