Friday, March 9

Quote of the Day:  “It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams.”  Quida

According to the internet, “Dreaming you see a lotus, means you will acquire knowledge and wisdom”.  I’m all for that.  Knowledge and wisdom.  Last year, because of cancer I gained a lot of wisdom, knowledge not so much.  But here’s the thing about wisdom, you have to incorporate it into your life and that’s where it gets hard.  You may know something on a deeper level but unless you really act with that wisdom, what good is it?  I find myself, in some ways, going back to worrying about petty things like being bugged by the rudeness of a store clerk or stewing over a comment that was made.  Last year, I had no place for those kinds of influences in my life.  Simply, there were too many other worries filling up my mind.  This year, the worries are less so I’m determined not to fill up those spaces with useless, unimportant thoughts.

Today, at 31 degrees I ran 13.75 miles with Sue B., Sue O., Melissa, Cokie and Donna.  We ran from Sue O’s house to This is the Place State Park and back.  The sun was shining in our eyes on the way back and the white snow on the mountains was beautiful.  I felt strong for the first 6 miles, which I was really grateful for and encouraged by, but when I looked at my watch and we were just over 8 miles, I wondered how I would complete 14.  But, alas, one step after the other, a lot of walking, a lot of running to the next corner, got us back home.  I pondered the following idea on the way home: “For a marathon I would have to go 13 more miles, is that possible?”  I quickly put those negative thoughts out of my head.  I can feel my hamstrings tighten as the miles go on.  I am trying some deep rolling therapy on those hamstrings, I think it is working a bit.  Also, my foot was fine so that’s a gift.

I heard something this week that has given me reason to reflect.  The creator of Spanx, Sara Blakely, was on T.V. and she said that her father would ask her and her brother this question each day: “What did you fail at?”  And so they would try to come up with something new that they had tried that was way out of their comfort zone.  As you probably know, Sara, at 41 is worth a lot of money.  She worked hard to get a product she believed in into the hands of women, knowing that her persistance may someday pay off.  

I think it’s human nature, as we grow older, to try less and less to get out of our comfort one.  It seems we are intent on having life move so smoothly that nothing shall ruffle our feathers.  But wait, then there are those people among us (I know they are rare) who are always trying new things, who get bored with the “same ol’, same ol'” and seem to be having a lot of fun.  But for most of us, as we grow older, we want life to be predictable, comfortable and we don’t want to be embarrassed or humiliated.  But that kind of living lends itself to zero growth?  So I thought I would think about my day and ask myself “What did you try today knowing that you could fail?” and guess what?  Not much came to mind.  

Last year, with my back up against the wall, I tried a lot of new things like writing in a blog and pushing the “publish” button, walking around bald at home and out in the wild, wearing a wig (failed at that), making a goal of walking 5.1 miles each day during chemo, getting a new job, facing some of my fears.  This year, I am going to try to fail more often, maybe I’ll find something that I’m good at or at least open my mind to new possibilities.

Missionary Taylor near his favorite Guatemalan fruit, mangoes!