The Fall

I fell off a curb today.

Just walking. Normal route. Nothing dramatic…no twisted ankle, no audience to witness it. Just me, one misstep, and a quick jolt back into the present. I was lucky. I hit hard.

What struck me wasn’t the stumble itself, but why it happened.

I wasn’t paying attention. I was deep in thought.

Not about anything useful or urgent. Just floating through a mix of mental tabs: something someone said yesterday, a reminder I need to set, a half-formed plan for tomorrow, a dog that walked by. The kind of background noise we all carry around. Ever arrived after driving and forget parts of the journey to get there?

And I missed the curb. Literally. Just stepped off into air I wasn’t expecting.

It got me thinking…ironically, again…about when I live in my head instead of the moment I’m actually in.

There’s a difference between thinking and being aware.

Thinking pulls you into loops. Past, future, what-ifs, should’ve-saids. Awareness plants you in the now. The curb beneath your feet. The sound of your breath. The rhythm of your walk.

We pride ourselves on multitasking, strategizing, staying ahead. But in all that mental movement, how much are we actually here?

That small stumble today reminded me how easy it is to disconnect from the present until something forces us back.

So I’m trying to walk differently today. Still thinking, yes. Softer. Slower. With a little more attention paid to what’s right in front of me.