In The Shadows

I wrote this poem while sitting in a golf cart in Palm Springs this weekend. Normally, I would have been out walking, exploring, moving around, doing something. Instead, I found myself sitting still again, watching from the sidelines.

That’s become a familiar feeling lately. Ever since rupturing my Achilles tendon, life has slowed down in ways I wasn’t prepared for. Even though I’m now in the recovery phase, I still can’t walk, and that reality has been frustrating in ways I didn’t fully expect.

When you’ve been active your entire life, movement becomes part of your identity. You don’t think about it. You just go. Walk the dogs. Exercise. Wander through stores. Take spontaneous trips somewhere. Movement feels automatic, until suddenly it isn’t. And when that’s taken away, even temporarily, you become aware of how much of life happens while you remain still.