Years ago, my sister took her young son to buy new shoes. When the salesperson measured his feet he told my sister, “his feet are two full sizes bigger than the shoes he has been wearing!”

My sister was shocked and asked her son, “Why didn’t you tell me your shoes were too small?”

He replied, “They don’t hurt if I scrunch my toes up like this.” And pointing to his feet, he ‘scrunched’ and curled his toes in tight.

His mom brought him new shoes, went home, and cried. She felt like a terrible mother.

Kids are resilient. This was devastating for my sister, and not a huge deal for her son. If my sister didn’t share this story, her son wouldn’t even remember it.

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What are the things that we do now, either to ourselves or have inflicted upon us by others, that are equivalent to this? In what ways do we ‘scrunch up’ our lives and accept, or tolerate, something that is uncomfortable, but we accept it? We don’t attempt to change.

Is it the way we treat ourselves or the way we let someone treat us?

Is it the ache we feel but we only take care of the symptoms, not the problem? (Tylenol is easier than physiotherapy.)

Is it the unhealthy diet we choose?

Is it the distractions we choose, that take us away from more important things?

Is it the way we let trivial things consume our thoughts?

Or is it that we let negative emotions, ideas and happenstances anger us and take over what kind of day we can have?

We tolerate a lot of discomfort because discomfort isn’t pain. It doesn’t hurt to eat Cheetos rather than a healthy snack. It doesn’t hurt to watch one more episode on Netflix rather than reading a good book, doing a hobby, or spending time with family. It doesn’t hurt to complain about a colleague rather than finding something nice to say.

It doesn’t hurt… or does it?