Have you ever had that moment when you realize too late that the ground beneath you isn’t as solid as you thought? I had that moment of sudden realization toward the end of a run the other day. I was narrowly focused on finishing my run and didn’t register that the path had changed from pavement to loose gravel. I didn’t notice until I felt myself slipping. As if time had slowed down, I had several thoughts. “This feels wrong…Am I falling?…Oh, I am falling!” Of course, I had approached this stretch of trail as if it was regular ground and would provide traction as I pushed off from one step to the next. Those were not the conditions that I found myself with. Instead, it was as if each step was pushing the ground out from under me. The conditions had changed, and I had a choice to make.
A few years ago I saw this tree that had fallen but found a way to keep growing by making a new trunk. Talk about adaptability!
I could adapt to what was there, or I could ignore that it was rocky and keep running down the hill, picking up speed - did I mention that I was going downhill? That may seem like a silly option to include, but often when conditions change we try to proceed as planned, unwilling to adapt. We stubbornly forge ahead, because we had a plan. Ignoring that conditions had changed wasn’t going to make the hill more even or give me the traction that I needed to stop slipping. I had to adjust my stride and my speed, keeping my feet under me and remembering that balance is dynamic. I had to allow my joints to be flexible, ready to change, rather than stiffening up. When I made it to the bottom of the hill, I had another choice to make. I could proceed as if I needed to brace against a potential fall - that may or may not happen - for the rest of my run, or respond to what the conditions were as I went along.
The view from the beach at the bottom of that hill!
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