How a Pair of Boots Helped Me Break a Bad Habit

Habits can work for you or against you, but good, bad, or indifferent, they are hard to break.

In my case, the fact that I really needed to break a habit was complicated by the fact that I really didn’t want to. Fortunately, these boots helped me do what I didn’t want to:

I have no idea how to play what I think of as “real” mahjong with the gorgeous tiles and deft thinking, but I am a devotee of longstanding of the online versions of the game.

It has been my go-to amusement for all those times I found myself waiting with nothing but a line ahead of me and a phone in my hand.

However, at some point in early 2018, I injured my left arm. I have no idea how I did it, and the pain was intermittent and hard to describe. It migrated here, and then it migrated there. It would get better; then I would do something, and it would suddenly be back to where it was at its worst.

Stasis

The injury to my arm didn’t quite resolve, and it didn’t get worse. I was in the middle of a protracted move, and while it was uncomfortable, it never rose to the level where I thought that the time spent seeing a doctor would be more productive than packing another box.