Life's Twists & Turns ~ Pub Note ~ August 2022

Pub Note

Life's Twists & Turns

Kristin Lunsford

“The road of life twists and turns, and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” - Don Williams Jr.

Have you ever had the feeling that life was going well and you had things figured out, then suddenly something happened that you just did not see coming?

A few months ago, I was on a work trip in Texas with business leaders from across the country. We were playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Not being too familiar with this sport, I agreed to play, thinking it would be fun and figured I was pretty athletic, so why not? I quickly realized that Ultimate Frisbee has the word “ultimate” in it for a reason! It is a fast-paced, intense game, especially when playing with very driven entrepreneurs. At one point, I even stopped and thought, “Hmm, I wonder if anyone knows where the closest hospital is?” A few of the people playing were a bit older than me, and I was afraid one of them was going to get hurt. Little did I know it would soon be me lying on the ground in pain.

The game had lots of twists and turns with sudden stops and changing directions. In my case, I stopped and went to change directions quickly, but my knee did not appreciate that, and I could feel it pop. I knew instantly that my Ultimate Frisbee playing time was done, and I

would probably be limping for a while. Fortunately, we were heading back home the next day, so I just planned to go to the doctor once we were back in Florida. Also, I was very fortunate to have been surrounded by so many caring people that day that immediately went into action, assisting me with what I needed: a knee brace, a ride back to the main lodge, ice packs, and kind words to make me feel better.

After a trip to the doctor and an MRI on my knee, it was confirmed that I had completely torn my ACL. The only real fix for this is to have surgery. The doctor did comment that surgery was not necessary if I could live a life of forward motion only. At first, I thought that it would be a great life to only focus on moving forward. No backing up, no twisting and turning, no sudden stopping. Life does not work that way, though, so we must always be prepared to suddenly stop and then pivot when things don’t go as we planned. When there is a hazard up ahead in life (and there always is), we need to be able to quickly twist and turn to try to avoid it. Repairing my damaged knee will allow me to once again do that physically, but pivoting mentally and emotionally in life is also just as important.

I was not planning on tearing my ACL or having to have surgery (not to mention not being able to drive for weeks afterward), but this journey has given me time to slow down and think about the most important things to me. Activities and vacations that my family and I had planned to do this summer had to be canceled because of my injury, but we adjusted our plans and still did lots of other fun things (with less walking).

I hope we all embrace life’s inevitable twists and turns and can pivot when the time comes into something even better than we planned. Finally, I hope we remember the importance of surrounding ourselves with kind people so when these unexpected detours happen physically or with family or work, we are comforted by their grace.

So important to surround yourself with people who will be there for you when you need help and also challenge you to continue to be better.