the elusive pinky toe

The Habanero Itch caused my pinky toe to break on New Year’s Day.  Or at least that’s what I’m calling it.  The Great Habanero Itch of 2016.

About a week before that minor (but holy OW) injury took place, I passed my Series 7 (this ‘measures the qualifications of a person to work in the financial industry as a general securities representative’).  I felt fantastic when I saw a passing score on the computer screen. I walked outside and looked at the banyan trees surrounding the run-down building, breathed in the car fumes from Nebraska Avenue, and smiled big.

December 2015 was good to me.  It showed me resolve is a thing we can flesh into reality if we freaking want to.

Unfortunately, after my strange New Year’s Eve (see prior post), I felt myself fumbling through this newly discovered confidence.  It was as if life was winking at me like, “Okay, you did good but, let’s be real here.  You’re not there yet.”

The morning of January 1st, cooking breakfast, I sliced up those pesky habaneros, itched my nose, and opened my fridge to get out some coconut milk to sooth the burn.  The entire contents of the highest shelf of my fridge went all over me, and all over a freshly mopped floor.

I answered life with, “Okay.  Yeah.”

During the epic collapse, a Funky Buddha bottle of beer decided to meet up with my pinky toe, and somehow did an inordinate amount of damage.  I sat on my couch, my foot propped up, toes painted lavender except for my darling pinky.  Sittin’ there already black.

I was humbled.  It seems silly but, I recognized it as a weird sort of setback.  There would be no fearsome workout to ensure the 1st of January 2016 was off to an amazing start.  And that was okay!

It’s okay to not be on all the time.  To have setbacks.  To pass tests, to fail tests, and to forgive ourselves for not being perfect.

So I can’t wear any closed toed shoes right now, and I’m noticing I’m not the most graceful addition to society.

It’s okay.  We’re all okay.