More Than You Think

Last night my daughter was helping me fix a couple glitches on my phone, and then asked if she could rearrange my apps in a more meaningful layout. (she is very polite that way, haha which is a much nicer way of asking than “Mom! I can’t believe you have so many apps scattered all over the phone, how do you find anything?!!!) Anyway, that’s not what this post is about, but it was funny.

As she was rearranging, she found an app called health. It’s been on my phone forever I think, and actually, as is true about most of the apps I have, many I don’t use or have any idea how they even got there, or how to use them effectively. So when she saw this app, she thought it was important to add some pertinent health facts about me, including an emergency contact, and she said, the health app can be opened without a password so if i passed out on the street, caring bystanders or emergency personnel could know if I needed something immediately or how to contact a loved one. But one other thing that was actually really cool about this app, which I didn’t even know was happening, it has been secretly recording my steps, so when she exclaimed, wow, you walked a lot today, I had to stop and think about what I had actually walked. And I had walked more than I thought I had. And then she said, did you walk a lot on OCT 28th, because it says you walked really far? Well, in fact I had, since I had the pleasure of walking a very long way on the beach in GA with a friend.

This was huge, I mean, really, who needs fitbit? (Sorry fitbit) But the really big message I got from this, aside from the delight that something is keeping track of me walking, is in everyday life, we are doing more than we think. We may not have a phone that is keeping track, but in a time where we have “to do lists” that go on for miles, and often feel ourselves coming up short everyday when we don’t accomplish everything on our list, this is a huge revelation.  We may not stop and think about it, or make notes on our everyday movements and accomplishments, but we are doing MORE THAN WE THINK, and that is something to pat ourselves on the back and remember.

xo, jan