The mind needs but a trigger to reflect...

It takes a certain type of trigger for a person to truly appreciate the real wonders of the world. With due respect to the things that I mention further down in this sentence: to me, magic is not the rabbit that pops out of the performer's hat, nor is wonderment induced by architectural marvels;  it's the miracle of the human body's healing process that is truly wonderful. And healing is not just about the tissues that spring back together, or the parted skin that inch together again, or even the nerves that snap back, restoring feeling... it's the healing that happens in the mind that's just as marvellous. 

Recovering from the injury to my foot has opened up a whole new dimension in my thoughts. And I'm now more aware of the orchestra of muscle, bone, tissue and skin that make the music of movement possible. When I started learning to walk as a child, I was too little to understand all the wonderful complexity... now I now exactly what I have been taking for granted.

 Just as in every effort involving more than one party, faith in each other is the starting point. My first lesson in re-walking: Walking is an act of mutual trust between feet. 

I couldn't begin to move until my uninjured foot recovered its faith in the injured foot's ability to contribute to the movement. That achieved, I started taking it a few steps at a time, and realized this: You never know how fast you've really been going until it is time to pause and reflect.

And reflect I did, so that I could fully appreciate that the art of walking, for many years buried in the subconscious, was brought sharply to the conscious. And as I pondered more over the act of walking, so complex in its simplicity, I realized that there is joy in discovering how you do what you used to do unconsciously.

The more confident I grew in my knowledge of this wonderful mechanism, the more I took pride in every step: every little bit of effort is important!

While my mind was outdoing my walking pace in its pace of thinking, healing enveloped me in its secure embrace... The old makes way for the new, it's all a part healing and growing!

Surely enough, the injured one gained the confidence of the other... paraphrasing our Man on the Moon - Footstrong: A small step forward for the left is a big leap of trust on its part. 

Some other discoveries: it's not the foot that runs forward that is really supporting you... your support comes from the backfoot, paradoxical as it may seem. 

And it's just gravity that makes going down easier: your muscles are more at home walking up the stairs... I find climbing stairs easier than walking straight. 

My paces may have slowed for a while, but my agility in learning to learn has just gained pace...