Times that we find ourselves frustrated and annoyed there is a tendency to focus more on our “I Can’t” moments rather than what we can do or what we are doing.

Recovery is creeping along after the rod removal. Instead of focus on the fact that I am up walking without assistance just a week post-op, today all I focused on was what I couldn’t do; go to the beach and lay in the sun, go to yoga, walk around the farmer’s market. As I continued to think about all of the things that I was missing out on, growing more sad and angry, I was actually missing out on the beauty of what I was doing: sitting in the park on a beautiful, sunny Charleston Saturday in good company with no real worries. My surgery is over, I have two legs that get me where I need to go (just very slowly and with some residual pain from surgery), I am healthy, I live in a beautiful place. You get the picture.

As I rode my bike home, it hit me that I had missed out on the wonderful little Saturday morning I had just experienced. Self pep talk time:

“Stop focusing on things that you can’t do in the moment and just allow yourself to heal. Maybe you can’t go to the beach right now but you have the whole summer to go to the beach. It isn’t worth risking sunburn to the beautifully revised scars on your arms or infection, for that matter. Your yoga legs will return before long and you can practice at home, there is nothing keeping you from doing a light flow on your own. You walked quite a bit today and rode your bike, that is HUGE progress compared to a week ago.”

After that little nugget of self realization, I had put things back into perspective. Be grateful for the CAN(s).

Love.