Imagine me in the air… going for a rebound in basketball… colliding with an opposing team member… one foot shot somewhere to the side as it tried to counterbalance… while the other tried desperately to coordinate with the hard, wooden floor….
…And my body crashing down on top of my poor ankle before it had any idea where it was—bending it in a way it shouldn’t and causing it to pop twice in the collapse.
…Yeah, that was me this past Sunday.
It’s amazing how quickly a person’s mentality can go from pure love in the moment to questioning every life choice they’ve ever made when something like this happens.
And I could feel the questions bubbling up almost immediately: “What was I thinking?!” “Why did I do that?! Why did I even come today??” “Did I just break my ankle?? How am I going to do life with a broken ankle?! Ughhhhh…”
But then I took myself back to those moments that came just before—the pure love—and decided I wasn’t going to do that. No regrets and no dwelling on an unchangeable event.
And I guided my mentality as quickly as I could to… “Okay… what’s next?”
And I rested, iced, compressed, and elevated. I got an x-ray (nothing broken). Have kept it moving, massaged, and appropriately active. And am feeling significantly better.
…And not only my ankle, but me. Because rather than pray for lighter burdens, I focused on stronger backs (ankles). And flexed my resilience muscle in a way that reassures my decisions to do the things I love in life going forward—even if it comes with a little risk.