I am healing and strengthening every day.

Healing is not a line that goes up. It is a scribble that goes up, and the scribble contains weeks where you are plainly worse than you were in March.

That is not a setback in the story. It is what recovery looks like at close range, and only distance ever makes the direction visible.

Exercises done badly on a bad week still count. Half the repetitions, done resentfully, are not half a session — they are the thing that keeps the habit alive until a better week arrives.

Nothing has to be impressive today for the direction to be right.