Here & Now
Tick, tick, tick…
The baby is down for a nap. This one usually lasts 30 minutes and it has taken me 10 minutes to get laundry on, dinner organized and settled in this rocking chair with my tunes playing at just the right volume (Ray La Montagne Pandora station).
Here, now, present. This blog. I want to write but just cant seem to pin my butt in a seat long enough to get anything of substance. I’ve been told to just discipline myself.
So I’m back into training & hoping to make my second Olympics. I want to defy the theory that in order to be the best you can be at something (i.e. running), you have to be fully self-absorbed with single-minded focus in order to achieve your dream. I went to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and fulfilled a lifelong dream. However, it didn’t give me the lasting satisfaction you would imagine such a goal would. Instead, I was left exhausted and thinking “Now what?” Well I got my answer: I over-trained my body and was forced to take a break. During that time off I had the time to realign myself and the energy to get married and start a family and a business (the last two in the same month). Now I feel very balanced (albeit busy) and content. I don’t “need” to make the Olympics. I don’t have what Buddhists call “attachment” to my training and racing (although I’m sure it will creep in from time to time.) I do want to make the Olympics and I’ll train hard every day, I’ll eat right, I’ll sleep right, I’ll do my core and my physio and my mental training. But my self-worth wont be tied up in a time on a clock on an oval track. Does having a family and being balanced mean I’m less hungry or have lost the edge? I am willing to test this out. So far I feel good and I’m getting fitter every week, so who knows? What I do know is, when I’ve chosen to listen to my heart and my instincts, I’ve been more balanced, happy and ultimately successful.
I'll look at Lo’s drawing of a tall rooted tree and use it as cue to remind me that when I’m dreaming of the future & making plans, I must remember to really only focus on the present, the here & now so that I make sure I do not miss one teeny tiny precious moment….
Bring on the next 6 months.
Gotta go… The baby is waking!
-Ro