Thursday, December 3, 2015

Tripping on the Noland Trail

 I learned to stand on my own before turning one. Ballet classes as a toddler taught my young body strength in muscle isolation. One push down a small slope on a bike was all I needed to understand the phenomenon of balance in relation to the unusual force of gravity. I scrapped my knees a fair share of times as a kid, but as time passed, my falls were less and less. Falling is for underdeveloped brains of disequilibrium children. So why did I misplace my foot on a relatively cleared path and end up sharing both of my knees and elbows with the gravel? I trusted my body's understanding of balance to keep me upright while running. For some reason, I was humbled to ground-level and made to feel like a child again. I am more often than not incredibly uncomfortable with childish acts in public, ones that might bring about embarrassment or unnecessary attention. For the second it took me to fall and the hour it took for me to finish the trail, I found strength in the obvious streams of blood coagulating down my shins and elbows as I passed many concerned eyes. Instead of disguising my mishap, I embraced it. 

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