By the end of Tuesday night that’s what my right knee looked like. I looked down at it and said out loud to all listening: You know what? It’s just another challenge. Not a big deal. We fall down. We get back up Pitts family. One door closes but another always opens. It’s not a problem. It’s an opportunity.
No one was actually in the room so I said nothing out loud. What actually happened was I sat on that chair and thought about being locked down even more in my house. My kids needing help in finishing their school work. Oh there’s a deadline for an assignment that a child hasn’t started? My knee isn’t just swollen. I can’t actually bend it. Or extend it. I’m in pain. Marielle is going through a course that she is working on so headphones are in. I wonder if she’s actually taking a course or just turning out all of this house noise? COVID is starting to move through her nursing home. I still can’t bend that knee even if I try to force it to bend, let alone put pressure on it so…what exercises can I do? You know what? It doesn’t matter because right now I don’t even want to exercise. I have a business that is closed. Writing at home programming using rakes and gallon buckets of water and backpacks…and if I write “use a dumbbell or kettlebell” one more time…
If I’m going to be even more honest I found myself pretty down and wrestling to have anything positive to say/think/write and this knee gave me one more “opportunity” to shut off my brain.
Then yesterday came.
I got a text from a fellow small business gym owner checking in. “Hey! How are you holding up?” and so I threw up all (well, most) of how I was “doing.” We talked some business stuff. Some COVID stuff. Some life stuff.
One hour and 23 minutes later (I looked at the time stamp for accuracy) I got another text. This time from a member that was cracking a joke about one of the coaches naming of their future child. Trying to see if we should put together a workout and whoever wins the workout gets to name the child. I semi-chuckled and tried to be witty back but he’s always more witty than I…chalk it up to another fail. One hour and 48 minutes after that: “So what’s up with your knee?” Which led to a small discussion around taking care of it and getting back at it. (He also gave me a “wtf with no Tuesday’s Tinkering” thus this writing).
My point in all of this isn’t a “oh woah is me.” I went back and forth on whether to even write this for that reason. Please don’t respond or text or feel the need to give me a pick me up. That’s my work to do. Here’s the point: this whole current life situation has flipped a lot of how I was functioning upside down. It’s changed schedules, mindsets, comfort zones and so many other things. And whether you want to admit it or not, it’s changed yours too. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes not.
Here’s what I got yesterday – well timed friendship. And THAT was necessary. You can be that for someone else or they can be that for you. But don’t hide in “all the issues” or “challenges” by yourself or just spewing out social media rants (maybe I being hypocritical with that statement right now). I don’t care how tough you think you are or what you can handle or if you think “that person has it together but I don’t.” Some of you are in a great spot right now. Be a friend to someone. Some of you aren’t in a great spot right now. Reach out to a friend.
We can hold each other accountable with exercise, nutrition, health and fitness. It’s important and good. BUT maybe someone in your circle just needs a “Hey! How are you holding up?” I’m grateful beyond words the amount of times I’ve received that text from people recently. Especially grateful for it yesterday.