Oops I did it again…

Last week I rolled my ankle.

As someone who wears clogs and has for years, this is not a brand new occasion.

I've been known to step off the edge of my Dansko's on a fairly regular basis.

But this time was different.

First, I just felt embarrassed - look at me! almost falling down! in the crosswalk!!!

Then the pain hit.

And I knew I was in a for a new experience. 

I was able to keep walking (barely, with a limp, and renewed suffering with every step).

Luckily my destination was close by, and I made it there. 

I'm happy to report that my ankle has bounced back very well, aside from a surprising amount of throbbing torment that first night at bed time.

But when it happened, I didn't know if that would be the case. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to walk the rest of the day, let alone the ones that followed.

Of course, this experience taught me a few things.

1. The very obvious one: Pay attention. 

I'd been rushing. While I initially gave myself plenty of time to reach my destination, I did at least three "just one more thing" tasks before walking out the door.

Then I hurried to make up the time. Part of that hurrying was me stepping quickly into a street, glancing up for traffic instead of looking at where I was placing my feet. 

And as we both know, my foot found a bad place to land. 

I'm grateful I didn't fall, or worse, upon impact. 

And: this whole experience could probably have been avoided if I'd given myself the grace of leaving when I said I would. If I'd skipped those extra to do items that did not really need doing at that exact moment.

Or at the very least, if I'd spent that walk paying attention to my body and its surroundings.

And 2. You never know what's coming next.

It could be something amazing that changes your life, like a job offer or a first date that turns out to be your spouse. 

It could be something rude that makes your previous problems look like cute inconveniences, like scary mammogram results or, I don't know, nearly falling over in a cross walk because you stepped on your platform sandal the wrong way. 

Maybe this sounds like a bad thing, not knowing what's around life's bends, but I think it's a beautiful thing, too. 

Everything can change in an instant. 

Which sort of means everything can change now.

Because you can use the power of perspective and imagination whether or not something comes along to disrupt business as usual.

Twisting my ankle shook me up and made me start paying attention again.

But I've had plenty of times where just imagining a negative turn of events has been enough to slow me down and make me think about how I want to show up to the present moment. 

Are there any areas in your life where you're not paying attention and things are at risk of going off the rails?

Did something bad happen, but perspective could help you move forward in a meaningful way?

Or maybe nothing has happened, but imagining what could happen would inspire you to make different choices?

No matter what's going on with you, I hope my rolled ankle and its lessons can be strangely useful to you as you go about building (and living) your wildly satisfying life.

All the best from the couch, with ice.