Hey! In case you missed last time, you’re receiving this because you’re a supporting force in my life; someone I’d like to stay in orbit with. Below, I share a bit about what life’s like these days.

Writing this is only 5% of the fun — I hope much more joy comes from the follow up walks and conversations I’ll share with some of you. Just click [here](mailto:[email protected]?subject=catching%20up%20from%20orbit&body=hey%2C%20saw%20your%20orbit%20from%20may%20and%20would%20love%20to%20catch%20up.%20I%27m%20%5BIN%2FNOT%20IN%5D%20NYC%20%5Badd%20dates%20if%20relevant%5D%20-%20when%20works%20for%20you%3F) and hit send if you want to catch up; I’ll take care of the rest.

What’s going on in my inner world

I spent most of February on my first solo trip, to Japan — though not the hostel-hopping, friend-making kind; this was deliberate solitude. I arrived carrying a lot of bitterness, but left much of it across the Pacific. Hope I didn’t pollute.

While there were lots of favorite moments, I’ll instead share some observations from journal entries compiled throughout the trip:

• Onsen are incredible. Self-consciousness in public bathhouses fades very quickly when you realize no one’s looking. (It returned instantly in American gym locker rooms.)
• Every conceivable niche, craft, hobby, and obsession is served with a physical store. Wandering through meticulously curated collections of things you didn’t know existed feels surreal. But how do these places stay in business when they’re almost always empty?
• Public transit is amazing, blah blah blah. My biggest observation on trains was that Japan is much more screen-absorbed than America, and it’s not close.
• Connection can come easily, even across a language barrier. The only requirement is that each person knows the other cares. Thank you for the meal, Nishimura-san.

With my reflections and trinkets from the trip barely unpacked, life introduced me to a less voluntary kind of solitude. Not two weeks after I was back settled in Brooklyn, I tore my ACL and meniscus thanks to some tremendous workout planning on my part (AM squat → PM basketball). The months since have been still, though I’m now very familiar with every contour and blemish on the walls and ceilings of my apartment. I don’t think I’m going to get the full security deposit back.

In January I wrote about embracing emptiness. By inari and injury, solitude and stillness have found me in greater doses than expected — and sooner. Japan’s deliberate solitude taught me to move forward, without needing to do; recovery’s enforced stillness is teaching me to accept, without solving. Neither lesson has come gently, but I’m finding myself releasing the compulsion of control more often than before.

What’s going on in my outer world

Honestly? Not much.

I traveled alone, got hurt, and my rehab is now my time-consuming top priority.

The lack of mobility is maddeningly frustrating as someone who loves to move, shake, play, and sprint after the occasional train; sports and the subway are both inaccessible for now.

Socially, I'm stuck asking people to trek to my place, instead of meeting them halfway. There’s a worry I'm becoming that friend — who texts 'want to come over?' for the third week in a row, knowing everyone’s already juggling their own packed lives and plans during the city’s best season.

Everything else — work included — has faded to background noise. The distance has made me better at it, according to my manager. I’m itching to lock back in though.

Still, my spring went all fuzzy, staring at apartment walls. I'm determined not to let summer go the same way.