Life Is A Dance & Earth Is The Stage

Life Is A Dance

Earth Is The Stage

Choreography Is Up To You

2015 was a year on injury for me—insanely so! What does this say about the dance I am choreographing for myself? I spent the entire year nursing one ripped muscle after another. My sister suggested that perhaps this means that I am getting old. My bro in-law kindly said, no, if I fell down and couldn’t get up, that would mean I’m getting old; but considering all my injuries happened during high-impact, out door sports, I am at high risk of injury, pretty much all of the time.

Here’s a  quick recap of the series of events that left me injured for the entire year of 2015:

February 2015: dislocated a couple of ribs while boogie boarding on the Big Island of Hawaii (a rouge wave pummelled my board into me).

May 2015: fell mountain running on a trail and ripped groin/thigh muscles which put a stop to my running for the year!

July 2015: damaged my heel pad and tendons, high-impact dancing barefoot on pavement, which put an end to dancing for 4 months!

December 2015: fell alpine skiing; which I had no idea caused me any injury. I was alone on the hill at the time and I picked myself up and carried on with skiing as though nothing was a miss. Though, on the trip home form the ski hill, it felt like my lower abs were going to burst open (I thought it was because I drank too much chai tea at the chalet).

I gave myself a fright because I had unexplained abdominal pain for a month afterward—quite severe for the first 3 weeks. I had all sorts of tests done and waited a month to have an ultra sound—the good news is that I am perfectly healthy. The bad news is that the pain is caused by my year end finale injury: that ski hill fall! I twisted my torso and ripped the lower abdominal muscles that attach to the pubic bone.

My take on my year of injury is that the life dance I’ve chosen to choreograph for myself is a very physical one and I’ve danced near the edge of the stage on occasion and have fallen off a few times!  

We are now in 2016 and I am going to be much more injury aware as I am finally back to dancing and running and I don’t want to stop. Though, truthfully, I know I will keep dancing near the edge of the stage. However, instead of jumping right back up and continuing the dance, I’ll rest for a bit to give myself time to heal. I am guilty of ignoring pain, pushing through it and exasperating every one of my injuries.

In life’s dance, the choreography is up to each one of us. We may fall, collide with other dancers, freeze with stage fright, screw up the moves on occasion but as long as we get back up and keep dancing, our lives are a work of art. If we choreograph life right, we might just create a masterpiece.