I Hurt My Elbow

Firstly, do not worry about me or my elbow. I have not started a gofundme and if you saw me you would have no idea my elbow hurts.

But it does hurt. Last night I was throwing the football around with my kids. I don't do this often, and I'm sure my form could use some work, but it's fun to play catch every once in a while, right?

So I had this epic, surprisingly long throw that impressed my kids. They are still at that age where they are like, "WOW DAD! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" for a throw that any average eighth grader could do. I'll take it, though. I'll take a WOW DAD THAT WAS AWESOME with the accompanying exclamation points any day, every day, as long as they'll dish it out.

After that throw I felt a little twinge of physical regret. No worries, it wasn't too bad. Later in the evening it was still there and this morning I noticed... still there. Whatever, I'm aging. I'm not as young as I used to be in my early 40's, what should I expect except that any movement would cause some kind of discomfort?

This post, though, is surprisingly not about my hurt elbow that I'm not worried about. Give it a week and it will be back to normal. And, really, it's not getting in the way of anything I need to do (like type at my keyboard in my air-conditioned office).

This post is in fact about healing. I know my elbow will heal. In a few days I won't even think about my epic, kid-impressing throw. It will be a thing of the past, like the thousand other times my body has healed over the years. When I was a kid and crashed my bike hard, I healed. Six and a half years ago I broke my ankle and had a very painful post-surgery experience (that included four hours of whining and yelling in excruciating pain).

I healed from those.

In 2006, 17 years and a few months ago, I was laid off. To make matters worse, I couldn't find a job, even though the economy was good. My career was broken, injured. It took a while, a long while, but it healed. I don't let myself forget the experience because it has driven, even fueled, what I do now. But it has healed.

I've been in low points in important relationships. Many of those hurt relationships have healed. Not all of them... I've reserved the right to leave relationships that are not good for me. But the relationships I've cared to nurture have healed, sometimes multiple times.

When you are a young kid, and you get a booboo, you think that perhaps it will never heal. But it does. I'm old enough, and I've hard enough broken things, that I know my elbow will heal. I know career issues can heal. I know relationships can heal.

I told you this post isn't about my elbow. It's about healing. I imagine you have something broken in your life right now. I imagine it can feel overwhelming, unworkable, and the only outcome is bleak.

I'm hear to tell you, it will maybe, likely, probably heal. If it doesn't heal back to a normal, or stronger state, maybe YOU will heal, you will change. Maybe you will face a change you've been afraid to face before, and either get forced into the right path for you, or find the courage to be the person people around you know you are.

Let healing happen. It takes time. It takes space. But it will happen.