It counts

It's not often that my words live in someone else's head

and my thoughts come out in their words,

but it happened.

This post from another's blog proves it!

If you’re obsessed with your Fitbit, you will know 

exactly what I am talking about. 

Since it really is a plastic, battery-powered pedometer, 

and not an omniscient being,

 there are things that don’t count. 

If you have both hands on a stroller or a grocery cart

 and you are not in a natural, arm-swinging way of living, 

your steps through the park or parking lot don’t get counted the same.

 If your arms of full of soft, warm laundry on the way to being folded, 

your steps won’t add up. 

Sometimes you even get fewer steps for running

 if your arms are up a little higher (which is total bullshit). 

Carrying a baby? Too bad. 

Doesn’t count. 

Squats, wall sits, planks, petting the dogs with your non-Fitbit hand. 

Doesn’t count. 

This morning I laughed about all of this and thought, 

doesn’t count toward what? 

 Do your legs and your heart reap the benefits 

of fresh groceries, clean towels and babies? 

Yes. God, yes. 

What else do we discount, I wondered as I showered (sans Fitbit)? 

Do acts of kindness count if no one knows about them? Yes. 

If the impact of you helping someone can’t really be measured

 in a matrix or in dollars and cents, does it count? Yes. 

Do our efforts still count if no one recognizes them? Yes. 

Yet I look at my daily Fitbit readings to judge 

how my day was every night before falling asleep. 

We’re not always moving in a form and with a flow 

that can be easily understood and measured 

by a plastic device on our wrist. 

Life isn’t like that. 

We use our whole being in other ways. 

We carry things. We squat. 

We bend and lift and fall down and get back up again, 

we go sideways and out of our way, and over the top. 

That’s hard to measure. 

Yet we look for hard and fast external clues that we’re doing okay. 

That we are measuring up. 

To something. 

I don’t have a solution for this, and I still love my Fitbit, 

but how nice would it be to believe, 

for a little bit of every single day,

 preferably that moment before bed,

 that it all counts.

 All of it. 

Everything.

Counts. 
~~~~~~~~~~

I would also add that my Fitbit helped me find 
one of my previously unrecognized gifts - 
sleeping.

I have never been less than 97% efficient ...

if only the same thing could be said 
for my waking hours!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However you spend your time - 
Make it ALL count~