Why the Right Path is Always Uphill: Finding Gratitude in Life’s Challenges

This is not the post I planned for today, but it’s the one I feel prompted to write, and I’m hoping it will help someone else. I’ve been working on the main idea for a bit, and as part of it, I’m sharing some photos of one of my favorite places on earth: Sedona, Arizona. Which, in addition to spectacularly beautiful scenery, has some pretty amazing hills, mountains, and hikes, and these photos make me happy and bring back a lot of fun family memories.

Anyway.

This post took on a bit of a different meaning yesterday after my follow-up appointment with my knee doctor to discuss the MRIs I had taken last week. I mentioned in a post way back at the beginning of December that I’d gone running on the trail by Kam’s house in Utah and had experienced some horrible knee pain, so I took the next 4 weeks off from running to hopefully let things heal. I tried running again 4 weeks later, and it did hurt a little bit, but not too badly at all, so I got back into my “back to running” program. I’d worked up to 6 minutes of running at a time this week, and I was so excited to really be back into running again AND to feel those mental benefits that I so love about running.

Then…yesterday’s doctor’s appointment happened.

“Stress response of the medial tibial plateau and, to a much lesser extent, medial femoral condoyle” is what the MRI report said.

And I’m back to FOUR MORE weeks of no running.

In fact, I can’t even walk on the treadmill. I’m limited to rowing, biking, and ellipitcaling (and swimming, but that’s just not my thing)—only if they don’t bother my knee at all, plus I can do upper body resistance exercises and very limited weight (body weight, basically) closed chain lower body exercises. According to my doctor, a “Stress Response” is a step away from a stress fracture, and if I was at the fracture point—or if I get to that point, I’d automatically be on crutches for 4-6 weeks in the hope that it would heal. No healing = surgery with a LONG recovery. I just really don’t want OR have time for either of those, so I’m really trying to be okay with taking things easy for a few more weeks and hoping and praying everything heals. And I’m trying to be patient. Which is really hard.

But it’s still super frustrating. SUPER frustrating. When this happened, however it happened (because I have NO idea), I was just getting back into running after my foot surgery, and I was being very cautious. So yeah…it’s super frustrating. And I keep going from feeling very sad and frustrated to, “I got this. I can make these adjustments. I’ll be fine and as good as new soon.” That’s been my thought cycle since yesterday.

So here’s where I add the original post I’ve been working on…

Henry B. Eyring once said, “If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.”

Interesting, right?

And kind of not what we want to hear? Because hills are hard. But it’s the truth!

If at any time in life we’re “traveling” on a flat road, we’re stagnate and not progressing. There are no challenges to help us grow. Yes, we might be on a flat road for a small bit of time, and that’s okay. That’s the breather we need before we start going back up that hill again.

If we’re going downhill, we’re going backwards progress-wise, and that’s so not good. Here’s an interesting thing: When you’re running or hiking, when you go downhill, it can actually be physically harder on your body. #foodforthought

Either way, neither (flat or downhill) leads to progress.

A couple of running-and-hill-related things I’ve been thinking about—a couple of analogies, if you will.

#1: Georgia is full of hills. I can’t run any routes without ANY hills, but those hills make me stronger, even though I really don’t like them. And then when I run somewhere flat—like in Arizona or on Kam’s trail in Utah, I feel like I could run for almost forever! That hill running really pays off, just like challenging ourselves by tackling the hills of life makes us stronger, more empathic with others who are on the same path, and all around better.

#2: When I’m running up a hill, if I look at the top of the hill, that hill seems so steep, and my head keeps telling me to quit—that I’ll never make it to the top. But if I look at the pavement right in front of me, that hill seems to shrink into a manageable size, and it’s so much easier to keep going. And before I know it, I’m at the top of that hill!

It’s kind of like with other things in life. When I have a huge project to do, or a daunting goal I want to accomplish, just thinking about the whole thing—that hill, or even that mountain, at times—can be completely overwhelming. But when I just outline some baby steps—and say a little prayer (the most important baby step!), and tackle just that first baby step up that hill, and then the next one, and then the next one, pretty soon, I’ve made some serious progress on that project or goal.

ANY hill, no matter how steep, can be conquered one baby step at a time.

Another thing that’s so important during any hill climb is gratitude and noticing those little tender mercies that occur frequently if we take the time to notice them. Here are my tender mercies and what I’m grateful for in this “No running for 4 more weeks while healing a knee injury” hill I’m starting to climb:

I went ahead and skipped the whole “Let’s see if this or that will work for X weeks before doing any MRIs” and went straight for the MRIs so we would know what’s going on. I’d already not been able to run for 8 months due to my foot issue and surgery, and I was over it. Like, completely over it. This decision will allow me to get back to running much sooner! #fingerscrossed
Likewise, I’m grateful for a low deductible that made it much easier financially to get those MRIs, especially since it’s a new year.
I’m so grateful it’s not fractured. SO grateful!
I’ve had a rowing machine on my Amazon wish list for months and months, and I’ve been saving up to eventually get it, and I ordered it yesterday. I really love the rowing machine, and my gym doesn’t have one. It will be so nice to be able to use it here at home, and I think John will like using it too. And it’s a great total body workout!
As frustrating as this new injury is, there are so many other worse things I could be dealing with, and this one is (hopefully) temporary. So many trials friends and family are dealing with right now are way more serious and heart-wrenching than this one, and I know they’d trade places with me in a second. #perspective
A doctor who took the time to listen to me, who understands how important running is to me, and who helped me navigate this new hill in my life. We also talked about my running from here on out (after I’m healed) so we could come up with a plan that will keep me running for as many years as I want to, which I hope will be decades.
Last, but definitely not least, this cute Valentines’ heart from Tyson and Braden was in my mailbox when I got home from the doctor yesterday. It immediately took its place on our fridge (a grandma’s best art gallery!) with pictures from Aria and Ruby Powell.