Wow, I missed blogging in February completely? Bad blogger!
I’ve had a lot to say but finding the time… well, that’s why I’ve have a lot to say.
Over the weekend I watched an interview with Life Coach Tony Robbins. I’ve never really read or heard much about Tony Robbins except to put him in the category of other motivational speakers. I enjoyed the interview for numerous reasons and took away this amazing story:
Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock and adopted by a loving family. When he was a small child, he was teased and picked on for being given up for adoption. He was “discarded”, or so that is what he was told. The news wrecked him and being teased about it brought this sensitive young man to tears.
Upon discovery of her child sad and broken, Steve’s adopted mother asked him what was wrong. After he explained his “story” to her, she smiled and reassured him that he wasn’t “discarded”… they CHOSE him.
Thus he went through the rest of his life feeling CHOSEN.
As a divorced single mother, it is easy for me to fall back upon the “brokenness” of my marriage and, perhaps, my life as it appears now to a society that values marriage as the most appropriate way to raise children. The truth of it is I AM divorced. My marriage ended. However the story I wish to place upon my life’s circumstances is a lot different than what the facts are.
Or as Tony Robbins says…
The facts of your biography may say one thing but YOUR STORY about it is up to you.
No pain, No pain: A triathlete’s motto?
All last year, I co-wrote a triathlon blog with some friends who wished to complete their first triathlon. My last post was the race report on the actual triathlon, in August 2011.
I haven’t been very triath-like since that day. This is why I put races on my calendar…. to AIM for. Those impending events motivate me to find a training schedule. That schedule is what gets me to the gym when I only have 1/2 hour to myself. Or makes me go for a run right after dropping the kids off at school. Or finds me on my bike trainer at 9:30 at night when the kids are in bed sleeping.
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t slacked off like I tend to do when it’s f-f-freezing outside in the middle of winter. Quite the opposite, actually, since we’ve had 70 degree days with a drop to the 50′s now and then. Instead of focusing on another triathlon, of which my next scheduled and paid for event is in June, I’ve been focusing on running.
I claimed long ago that running is not my forte. But then suddenly, after a couch-to-5K training schedule last year and trying a new running style, I found that I actually enjoyed it. I decided to up the ante this year and challenge myself to 6 miles. I downloaded Jeff Galloway’s Easy 10K app and began week 1.
Week1… so far, so good. Until the long run of the week. Over 5 miles.
I’ve never run 5 miles in my life. Much less on a treadmill, which was the only option available with the kids around. During mile 3, my IT band and sciatic nerve in my left hip began to bother me. After the run, and since then, I’ve focused on yoga poses I know that help alleviate that pain (like pigeon pose) and it helps temporarily. So I pushed through week 2… AND the continued pain.
By the end of week 2 when it was time for my long run, I just couldn’t do it. My knee feels very unstable and achy. Add to that the lingering pain in my right elbow (from August of last year) and I begin to wonder if my triathlon days are numbered.
*sigh*
I certainly hope not.
Addictions, Community and Belonging
I have a new addiction.
Like I need another social media addiction!
It’s Pinterest ….and like, Facebook, Twitter, youtube, Google +, blogs, etc… it sucks me into a deep black hole where I can no longer figure out how I got where I went or how long I’ve been there. (Ya know you want to follow me: TD on Pinterest)
What I love about my new addiction is the same love I have about social media in general – community. With social media, you can build whatever kind of community you like. I have social media folks I follow in some places, musicians in other places, single parents in other places, natural living peeps in even other places… it’s endless. You can create a space in which you feel absolutely at home. Me… I feel at home in lots of places, apparently, because I’m all over the place.
Social media is also a great reminder of our humanness. Try and observe your physiological responses when you see pictures of new babies, or when you read a status update or tweet of someone needing prayers, or, most obvious of all, when you see video of an animal being kind to another animal or human lives being rescued by strangers or reunited with loved ones. Your heart feels open, a lump wells in your throat, tears begin to fill your eyes. Your chest widens with compassion. There is a part of our brain that responds to this. We are hard wired for compassion. It is part of our DNA. Desmond Tutu says that we are happiest when we remember that we belong. I believe that statement and the growth of social media proves it.