Two Hundred Seventy-Two Steps
You don’t wake up in pain. That would be cleaner. Easier to understand, easier to justify. Pain with a clear beginning can be handled like a task. You point to it, contain it, work around it. This isn’t that. This is something that was already there. It settles in as you move through the morning, not announcing itself, just gradually taking control of the day while you pretend it isn’t. You make it to the office anyway. Ten o’clock. Late, but not late enough to matter. The kind of late that can still be explained without anyone asking follow-up questions. You sit down, open your laptop, fall into the usual routine. Emails, messages, small movements that signal everything is fine. For a moment, it feels manageable. Not good. Not even stable. Just tolerable enough to keep going. By 2 PM, the body stops cooperating. Nothing dramatic happens. No sharp moment you can isolate. Just a shift. Something you could work around becomes something that works around you. Sitting takes effort. S...
