Saturday long run- Snow edition

I am not running today. Don’t worry. I am still broken, but if you remember, this is what I would be doing if I was not running… writing. I have not been as good at keeping this discipline up like I would have hoped. But that is the art of discipline I suppose, it takes work and effort. Repetition.

As I started to map out what it was I wanted to write about, I was flipping through a roll of film that I had just gotten back from the developers. And I was immediately struck by a couple of photos that I took… not because they were good, but because they reminded me of something really precious during my period of recovering from my injury. And that is the community that has come around me.

Before I continue, would you help me and let me know in the comments if you are reading these? What are you enjoying? What are you curious about? Etc.

Ok, back to the regularly scheduled program…

Community. By definition according to Merriam-Webster: a unified body of individuals: such as

a- the people with common interests living in a particular area

broadly : the area itself the problems of a large community

b- a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society

One of the major issues we as a family experienced in Portland, especially as I transitioned careers and found ourselves not around the people we spent the better part of the past decade around, was the fact that we were absent of meaningful community. Both my wife and I had pockets of friends that we would maintain but collectively as a family, as a unit, as a crew, we didn’t really have any common community. I don’t think it was ever intentional. I don’t think it was ever malicious. But for whatever reason, it wasn’t there.

Now fast forward to the year part of 2024, and my broken body is lying on the trail with an orthopedic nurse, the only person I saw all run, comforting me as we wait for the ambulance and rescue squad. The next 48hrs could not have been any more of a blur. But even within that chaotic, life-altering experience, I began to discover something subtle happening. Something I that I had no control over or influence on the outcome of. There was beginning to become a small group effort aligned around a common interest within the proximity of me and my brokeness.

There were floods of texts, back and forth correspondence in the general fashion. But first on the scene, beyond my family obvs, was my homie Trevor. (Photo below from him).

Broken, as captured by Trevor

He was there almost borderline immediately, bearing gifts. That brown paper bag on the bedside table was from him, with contents inside consisting of: jerky, water, a couple of chocolate bars, and 2 rolls of film🎞️. I have known Trevor for a long time. He is no stranger to the ways of hospital life and navigating complex health issues. While I would consider myself have “being there” for him during his stuff, I never actually went to the hospital to visit him. I was very appreciative of the company and the gifts. The gifts were so simple yet thoughtful. Ironically, I have basically lived off of jerky since and the chocolate bar(s) is a kinda nice end of day wind down treat these days lmao.

🚂CHOOOO CHOOOO - HERE COMES THE MEAL TRAIN🚂

When making my way home and the days to follow, we received an insane amount of generosity from people around the area. (people with common characteristics) To this day, I am still not entirely sure who started the meal train, and it was certainly NOT because I had asked for any kind of help. You have to understand, at this point into living in North Idaho, I sorta remained to myself, not really seeking out new friendships, engaging much with the church our family was starting to attend. But once the word got out about my injury, and whatnot, there was a meal train longer than we could have ever imagined.

We were receiving boxes of food, premade chicken pot pies from our local pie shop, Birdies. Apples, oranges, yogurts OH MY!!

INCREDIBLE homemade chicken noodle soup! This was a lifesaver tbh… The sad irony is that I had, and still… don’t have a major appetite. But what a gift to the family.

And this group that had mobilized, it was immediate, without ask, without warrant, just sprung into action. To this day I am still dumbfounded by the response. Humbled really…

There have only been a handful of times that I have been able to leave the house since breaking my leg. It’s a cumbersome experience, painful, stupid and on and on lmao. But one of the chances I got to flee the coop was to grab lunch with a dude who helps out at my daughters youth group, Raniel (Daniel with a “R”). He was kind enough to swing by Superbowl Sunday to say what’s up, and we had made a bet on how many times Swiftie would be shown during the viewing of a ….. FOOOOOOTBALL game smh… anyway I digress. I won the bet figuring it would be at least 10 times. To make good on the bet, he owed me a lunch, and lunch was had! He swung by picked my sorry ass up, helped me into his rig. This was the first time I left the house without the help of my wife, so obviously humbling and a tad humiliating, but he was patient, helped with doors, the crutches, etc. He bought a boat load of sushi, enough to have me sent home with a whole order for Echo!

To this point I had maybe exchanged a handful of words with the dude, but now we are going deep into our stories, what God has been up to in our lives, and the whole shabang (sp?)… One more example of the community springing into action and coming around me, my family and providing a sense of home and peace…

Next up on this list would be my neighbor Daryl. Though his contributions surrounding the injury were minimal, he is a constant figure of just “being there”. Numerous times he’s lent me a tool, come to help jumpstart a rig (yes, I can jumpstart my own vehicles but it’s complicated lmao), or helping with whatever. Just a goooood dude. Probably one of my favorite people meeting up here in North Idaho to be honest.

Anyway, the take away here for me is just how much I / we have missed genuine community. This was not an expected outcome… I would argue when I was working at the church decade+ ago, we as a family went through a lot of growth and challenging situations, and never experienced what we had just witnessed by the community up here. My wife would sit alone with a brand new kid while no one was “meal training” for us. Few family visits, reaching out out of nowhere. Ultimately, it led me to believe the church, the “family” we worked so hard to contribute to building was nothing more than a fraud. A false reality. That is… until we went through this most recent experience. While what we have experienced within the last month, and continue to experience even now, does not redeem previous wounds or disappointments, it does provide a sense of hope. The community is not broken, not lost. There is beauty that comes from brokenness and maybe it took me getting this low to be willing to receive it’s gifts openly and willingly.

For me, a simple take away is - be aware. Engage. Be ready to lean in. There are opportunities everywhere to build the community we desire. I am currently looking for my tools to start contributing and building community in a meaningful way. Consider this a comeback tour of sorts.

These are my thoughts on this long run Saturday. I wish I could run but I can’t. So I will write, and write I have done.

A reminder, all of these writings are sorta following the “write now, don’t re-read” mentality. So don’t be critical of grammar and whatnot. Just go with the flow. The photo’s are all on film, with the attempt of capturing the imperfect along the journey.

Until next time.