An Object in Motion…

An object in motion stays in motion. The opposite is also true.

An inert object struggles mightily to move. The longer the object remains still, the more difficult it becomes to get the object moving again. A rusty old train will cough and wheeze smoke before its slow and lurching movement forward.

I’m finding this to be relevant for myself as I rehab my collarbone. Exercise for me has always been reliant on momentum. Because I always exercised, I always found “maintaining motion” to be relatively easy.

After a few weeks of being sidelined while waiting for my collarbone to heal, I’m finding the thought of movement to seem increasingly tiring. Wouldn’t it be easier to just sleep in?

The body and mind hate changing what they’re accustomed to. I can now see how dangerously easy it would be to forfeit exercise altogether. There’s always an excuse, after all. Work, family, appointments, and life stresses are legitimate reasons to not exercise daily.

I feel a sense of urgency to resume exercise. One can revert the habit of daily exercise surprisingly fast. The human mind will always prefer the easier option. I had never told my mind that an easier option exists, but now it knows that comfort exists in the land of avoidance.

The most difficult part of rehabbing a bone break is waiting to be healed. There is little I hate more than waiting. Days spent waiting for something in the future feel like wasted days. I know I’m close to healing though. Basic chores that were excruciatingly difficult to perform during the first weeks are now becoming easy again.

Hopefully, when I visit the orthopedic on Friday, I’ll be given the “ok” to rid my sling. I’ve been tempted to rid it regardless of the doctor’s orders, but I’ll continue to wait.

I think of the movie Snowpiercer, and the train that continuously races across the world for all of eternity, never to stop, forever on sleek tracks that roar forward. If it stops, its inhabitants die. In some ways I want to be that train.