Yesterday, I hosted my annual Christmas party for our families. I was up super early to cook all the sides and prepare for the crowd. My menu was well planned, as were my table settings. I thought of every last detail and couldn’t wait to get started. Family arrived and festivities began. I decided to be lazy and throw a gift box from the door of my kitchen into the garage. Well…
That’s when it happened. Crash, boom, bang came from the garage. I had closed the door so when I heard it I was kind of surprised. I quickly went to run out to see what happened and that’s when my three small toes on the left foot got jammed in the metal kitchen door. So, what do you do when you have a house with 16 guests, dinner ahead of you and three possible broken toes. You do what every good hostess does. Your sister in law and you quickly joke about sharing on Reclaiming Health blog and appropriately title the sharing – Setbacks. (LOL – Helga!)
We had some good laughs over my misfortune all day. My daughter graciously pulled out my crutches, used the past two winters. That experience came in quite handy as I knew how to maneuver around the kitchen on them. My brother in law wondered if he was the cause of my misfortune as some type of jinx. Me I just said, the show must go on and pass me a shot of that alcohol on the counter.
Today I am in pain, resting and soaking the foot in cold epsom salt and hoping for the best. Yes, I will admit my first worry was my training run that I’d likely have to miss today. I remembered my twenty weeks off last year and subsequent addition of ten pounds. I hoped this would be a small setback and not a long one this winter. I wondered why I get hurt every darn year. Then I realized it’s partly because I’m always rushing around trying to get everything done at once.
In my training plan I have had to slow down to stay within heart rate targets and now again to hit cadence targets while maintaining heart rate. It’s been quite challenging to run that slow, but I’ve noticed something – I enjoy the time and afterwards feel refreshed, not exhausted and spent. When hitting my 180 cadence target with the metronome this week, I thought I’d never hit the cadence because I had to cut back my speed to running slower than walking. Funny, I hit the faster cadence at the slower speed. I remember wondering if life couldn’t be just like that. Could we continue the push to do everything in life while maintaining the ability to enjoy it? I now wonder if these constant setbacks were trying to get that message into this stubborn German brain.
Hence, my new resolution was formed. I will continue my pace of getting things done in my work and personal life, maintaining the speed and pace of a full life. But, I will slow the process to smell the roses. I will savor the sights and sounds on those morning runs and not just try to fit it in and get it done. I will read deeply the words on pages in books and not just read to finish it. I hope you will take some time to do the same in your life. Life, it seems goes by so very quickly while we are busy racing around living it. It’s sad to think of being at the end of life and realizing you missed it.
Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New Year!
Reclaiming My Health 