Had to pull the battery out of my truck the other day. It was dead. Not weak. Double-D Dead. The truck just sits there most of the time. I don't drive anymore because of my health. It gets started every now and then, but not enough. Not like it should.
Batteries aren't meant to sit. They need to be used. They need the charge and discharge cycle to stay healthy. Let them sit too long and they go bad. Sound familiar?
I've learned this the hard way. Things that sit too long go bad. Batteries. Bodies. Minds. Relationships. Skills. All of it. You stop moving, the body breaks down faster. You stop learning, the mind gets dull. You stop reaching out, the relationships fade. You stop practicing, the skills disappear. Nothing stays good just sitting there.
I spent too much time this past winter sitting in my recliner. Health issues. Bad weather. No energy. All good excuses. All true. But it didn't matter why. What mattered was I was sitting too long. And I could feel myself going bad. The muscles got weaker. The joints got stiffer. The motivation got harder to find. The longer I sat, the harder it was to get up. Just like that battery.
You can't just jump start a dead battery and expect it to hold a charge. Sometimes you need a new one. But if you catch it in time, you can bring it back. Keep it charged. Keep it working. Same with the body. Same with the mind.
I promised myself when the weather warmed up I would start moving again. I've been keeping that promise. Not perfectly. But I'm doing it. Getting outside. Walking. Doing projects. Visiting family. Using the body before it forgets how to work.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using Linux photo editor and drawing and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.