an inchworm's approach
✨this month's slice of Self School pie✨
Seven weeks ago, my recently-turned-50-year-old husband got his knee replaced. (It’s been a year for my crew. First, my son fractured his kneecap playing baseball; then my daughter required reconstructive knee surgery after a ballet injury; now, years of sports-induced damage and arthritis finally caught up to my husband. I’m hoping that the “things work in three’s” saying pertains to my family’s knees and we’re past orthopedic trauma for a substantial stretch.)
I bring this up because although my husband’s replaced-old-man-knee-joint now functions beautifully after years of debilitating discomfort, the recovery from a surgery that tore through muscles and nerves is brutal in a new ways: fiery nerves, aching muscles, utter exhaustion. I just gifted him this t-shirt, which he happily dons while elevating the throbbing limb at day’s end:
Because the someday “I feel great and this was worth it” won’t be here for some time, we’ve come to measure each day’s progress in inches.
“Have we inched closer to a better place?”
If the answer is yes, we consider it a small win on the long road of recovery. If the answer is no, he tweaks the course and sets hopes on progressing an inch forward tomorrow.
It’s slow. It’s steady. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s progress.
The older I get, the more I’m noticing that we’d best serve our evolving selves by measuring progress in inches rather than in lofty outcomes. For desires like learning a new skill, incorporating a new practice, repairing a tense relationship, eliminating a bad habit, healing a painful hurt… the process requires the energy of patience and consistency more than anything else. And with that patient consistency, we move forward toward a better, healthier, more desired place… inch by inch.
As I mentioned last month, a new feature of the Becoming Everwell with Lindsay Hurty Substack (for paid subscribers) is that once monthly, you’ll get to connect with me, the educator, as I serve you up a slice of Self School pie.
Grounded in my own mid-career, early-parenthood inner evolution, starting back in 2016, combined with my expertise as a classroom teacher with a master’s in education, I designed the Self School life-curriculum to support midlife seekers rediscover aspects of themselves throughout life’s bumpy ride, with the goal of inching closer to that most meaningful life we all want.
