Tall Boots Make for Weak Ankles

My life has so rarely gone to plan, I largely stopped planning - at least not too far out into the future. I operate on a much shorter time frame than most. This drives some people crazy (including myself, occasionally) but it allows me to adapt pretty quickly to any upset in the schedule. At one point in my life, I felt incredibly free by not having the weight of plans to tie me to anything. Of course, that's a difficult thing to maintain as an adult human on Earth during a time we have dated 2025. The cogs of life have ground me into some level of submission.

During my countless deep dives on whatever interesting thing I was pursuing at the time, several subjects have recently led me back to a similar concepts or notions that all seem to relate in my mind. When that happens, I take it as a sign the Universe is either telling me this directly, or I'm recognizing it's in alignment with the idea, and I had better pay attention. It'll be hard to tie this thread together, but follow the logic if you can. I promise it's there.

Exercise has been taking up a big portion of my time and attention, as I continue to rebuild my body after two surgeries and years of misguided and unsuccessful physical therapy. I educate myself more and more as I continue to understand the root causes of the issues I'm dealing with. It is something of a "ready, fire, aim" approach, but providing better results than the professionals ever did. I'm working on retraining muscles that are stuck in compensatory patterns and building overall strength in the process. Long ago, I pushed my body to perform movements without paying attention to how it was doing them, and I'm still paying the price. It turns out, the body is an adaptation machine and it will try to deliver on just about anything your brain asks. It may not be comfortable or sustainable, but it will try as hard as your mind pushes it. The takeaway: as in many things in life, form is of the utmost importance. You can adapt to bad situations, but it won't be sustainable in the long run. Better to start with a good foundation. Pay close attention along the way.

To build muscle, you have to increase load. Your body will adapt and become stronger in the face of the additional stress. If the load decreases, the muscle will follow suit and decrease as well. Everyone who is capable of reading these words on a screen is educated enough and rich enough (let that sink in) to already know this concept. It's not news. The take away: to gain muscle, the body must be challenged, and that challenge is a constantly moving goalpost. Side takeaway: we are more highly educated and wealthier than most anyone in the collectively known history of this planet.

Research into aging shows that the more muscle mass one can maintain in life, the longer that person will likely live. In essence, your muscles are the bank of your lifespan. Unlike a financial bank, you cannot just continue to accumulate muscle and squirrel it away, living off the dividends. Muscles that are used will maintain or grow, muscles that aren't will dwindle. Simple as that. It is a use it or lose it world. The catch is building and maintaining muscle gets harder for the body as it ages. The take away: If you want to live longer, or even just more freely, move more throughout your entire life. This inherently requires the previous takeaway - you must challenge your body repeatedly as it adapts.

I came across this article that talks about how three days in the backcountry is the magic time for what your brain needs to reset. The author is of course promoting a book on the larger subject of how our modern world has created an environment that is difficult for our primitive brain to function properly. Seeking a constant state of comfort is not beneficial in long run and we need discomfort to thrive (sounds a lot like exercise). I haven't read the book, but I'm sure it's filled with information that most anyone who is in tune with themselves will nod along with, intuitively knowing the statements to be true - but maybe not knowing the science that now can prove it. Science and proof is cool, but I don't need it in situations like this. The gut knows. The take away: some challenge and discomfort in life can create a calm that comes from exercising adaptability in our mind/body complex. Nature can provide unpredictability and discomfort by the truckload.

I attended an excellent talk at the Vendanta temple last weekend about embracing change. The speaker, Pravrajika Krishnaprana did a wonderful job in encapsulating all the ways that change effects our external and internal lives, making it both fun and relatable. Change is inevitable. It's only through our attachment to a specific outcome that trouble arises. The takeaway: changes will happen in every aspect of life. Practicing the acceptance of that daily, even in small ways, is beneficial.

We spend so much of our lives trying to make things predictable. Consistent. We are wired for routine. Furthermore, we are wired for conservation of energy. We do the same things we did yesterday, because why not? It worked great - we are still comfortably alive. No need to reinvent the wheel. We create routines on top of routines that become habit, to the point that we don't even think about why we do them anymore. We trample down yesterdays footsteps so frequently that we find ourselves unhappily in a rut of our own making. What's the advice for breaking out of a rut? Shake things up. Try something new. Do things differently! The takeaway: Perhaps we can avoid ruts in the first place by making variety the routine, rather than repetition.

Change is uncomfortable. Exercise is uncomfortable. Aging is uncomfortable. But "uncomfortable" is not "bad." It is a temporary state we mentally label as negative and try to avoid, rather than the reality: it is an opportunity to grow.

This brings me back to thinking about embracing a little more chaos as a way of life again, like my younger self. Maybe not chaos, but rather, variety. Seek out the music and learn to make graceful pivots on the unpredictable Field of Life by dancing with it, rather than letting society's bulldozer try to smooth it out and put up guardrails. You can still find yourself sidelined from tripping over gravity in a parking lot. Remember, tall boots make for weak ankles and the path of least resistance isn't always what it seems.

These photos have nothing to do with my writing. Just recent randomness.