Start
Ugh. Today we’re taking down the Christmas decorations, which is probably my least favorite day of the entire year. I’ve mentioned before that I have trouble with endings, and Christmas is a big one. Yesterday when I was moaning about this transition, my son pointed out that you have to end one thing before you can start another. I’m trying to look at this de-Christmas-ing of the house as a start and not an ending… because, not coincidentally, my word for 2022 is “Start.” I know, it seems kind of obvious. It feels like I should have a more elevated, fancy word, like “Emerge” or “Achieve.” But when I was thinking about one-word themes, I kept coming back to “Start.” It’s a good word for January, but I think it will serve me well throughout the year. There are always things to start, and I like to remind myself of Mary Poppins’ line, “Well begun is halfway done.” Sometimes you just have to take that first step, or the first ornament off the tree, and then the task is on its way to completion. I also think about the famous Arthur Ashe quote, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” In order to start where you are, you have to take a good, long look at your situation. If you’re going to pilot an airplane to New York, you have to know where you’re starting from. If you’re starting from Cleveland but you think you’re starting from Chicago, you’ll never get to New York. So why is it so depressing to end Christmas? Why does regular life feel so blah? Should it feel this blah? Maybe I need to examine my work life, personal relationships, and leisure time activities to see where things are falling short. Then, of course, there’s running. I spent all of 2021 wishing I were running faster and farther. I pushed things as much as I could, in between flare-ups of my ongoing foot issue. Getting sick at the end of the year, and the enforced rest, was almost a relief. I started up again by walking, and then running a mile. I’m determined to take things slowly while my foot gets used to the new orthotics. I’ll get to where I want to be, as long as I start exactly where I am. So that’s my word for 2022! Throughout the year, if a task seems daunting, I’ll remind myself to take that one first step. And I’ll take some time to reflect on where I am, so I’ll know exactly where I’m starting from. I’m linking with Kim and Zenaida for their Tuesday Topics this week! How about you? Do you have a word for 2022?
Weekly Rundown- New Year, New Everything!
Well, well… we made it. You know how, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, bursts into flames and is then reborn from the ashes? Well, I feel like I kind of burst into flames at the end of 2021, but now I’m ready to rise again! How’s that for a dramatic start to the weekly rundown? I’m linking up as always with Kim and Deborah (thanks for hosting, ladies!) The week was a bit unusual, but ended strong! Let’s get started. Monday So tired. Rewind to Christmas Eve- I had a horrendous sore throat (which turned out to be Covid) but didn’t experience any unusual fatigue for the first couple days. It all caught up with me though, and Monday looked a lot like this: Tuesday My cat was hilarious- every time she saw me lie down on the couch she would run over to snuggle with me. Wednesday Weird thing- I was feeling better except my legs were so achy. Like one lower leg would ache, then that would go away and the other hip would ache, then both hip flexors would ache… I wasn’t too worried about it, but it was annoying. I decided it was time to start moving a little more, so I did a yoga class with Denis Morton on the Peloton app. That felt good, but didn’t relieve the achiness. Advil helped though (once again, a big thanks to Advil for making this holiday possible.) Thursday Enough is enough! I had fulfilled my seven days of quarantine and it was time to get outside. I had a lovely walk, using my new orthotics. As a matter of fact, I wear them all the time now. When I’m in the house I have them in an old pair of running shoes that I can slip on and off like slippers- so they go on as soon as I get up in the morning. Walked 2.5 miles and it felt amazing to be out in the sunshine. After this, the leg aches never came back. I don’t know if it was the walk that did it, or if it was time for that to end anyway. Although I felt much better, energy-wise, I was still coughing and sniffling. I was scheduled to go back to work on Friday, so I took a Covid test just to be sure, and it came out… positive. Noooooooooooooo! I work in such close contact with people, giving massages, and a lot of my clients are elderly, so my boss and I decided to give it a couple more days. Sigh. In other news, my daughter turned thirteen! It was another in a long line of unexciting birthdays for her. Poor girl- December 30th is not a good birthday, and this year was especially blah. I did make a cake: Friday I realized we have a trampoline in our backyard! Bouncing on a trampoline is supposed to be really good for your immune system- I should have been doing that all along! I jumped for 20 minutes and then did some rehab-type hip exercises, which left me sore, but in a good way. Not achy sore, but getting-stronger-sore. New Year’s Eve was uneventful. My husband was supposed to be playing a show, but it was canceled because the drummer had Covid. It was nice having everyone home. We ate pizza, watched a movie, saw the ball drop in Times Square, and went to bed. Woohoo! Saturday Happy New Year! Or, as the saying goes, “New Year, New Foot.” There was absolutely no way I was NOT running on the first day of 2022. Given all the recent developments, I decided to behave as if I were starting fresh as a beginner. I walked a mile and then ran a mile. When I first started to run, my breathing was so labored I wondered if I really was starting as a beginner- but by the end of that mile I felt amazing! It was only a mile, but it was the perfect start to the year. At night we watched Baylor win the Sugar Bowl!!! All our holidays were so low-key this year, I tried to make it as festive as possible. Sunday Moving forward, I’m planning to run every other day in January while I build back up. On tap for today is yoga, and taking down the outdoor Christmas lights (boo hoo! Taking them down is so much less fun than putting them up.) And… getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. Back to real life! Do you like the week between Christmas and New Year’s? I feel like it’s so distinctive, it should have a special name. The only thing I’ve been able to come up with so far is “In- Betweek.” Still working on it. Are you sorry to see the holidays end, or ready to get back to real life! – A little bit of both, for me.
New Year’s Eve Runfessions- A Thrill of Hope
Hi there! Well, here we are on the last day of the year. Thanks to Marcia for hosting the last “runfessions” of 2021- let’s get right to it. I only have one big thing to confess, and it’s this: I’m REALLY glad to see the end of 2021. Of course it had its shining moments like any other year: But other than that, to put it as eloquently as possible, 2021 kind of sucked. I dealt with my foot issue (plantar fasciitis and peroneal tendinitis) literally the entire year. I alternated between running, kind of running, not running, and pool running while I tried all sorts of remedies. Let’s not forget the bonus hip injury where I ended up in PT, and the mysterious aching knees after that. By November I was receiving shockwave treatments and running short distances, but running just felt hard. The week before Christmas I had a mysterious digestive issue and my running took a further hit, and THEN, as the icing on the cake, I got Covid on Christmas Eve. At that point is was almost a relief to give up on the whole thing and rest. In a post on Christmas Eve, Elisabeth shared a line from Oh Holy Night: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.” That line ran through my head all day long. “A thrill of hope.” I felt it! Not just for me, but for the whole weary world. I actually had Covid- the thing we’ve all been trying so hard to avoid for the past 20 months- and it really wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t fun, but I was vaccinated so the omicron variant wasn’t dangerous to me. The next variant will be weaker, and the next one after that weaker still. I can see our way out of this whole mess. And for some reason, on Christmas Day I started to walk a little easier.. Something turned a switch in my brain that day, and now instead of expecting pain when I step down, I expect it to feel good. It might have been the ibuprofen I was living on- or maybe it was a Christmas Miracle. Whatever-I’m looking ahead with true optimism to the new year. I’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine! Goodbye 2021! Hello 2022- I’m ready for you. Would you say 2021 was a good year for you? Are you ready for 2022?
Quarantine Fun
Hello all! In case you missed my last post, there’s good news and bad news; the bad news is my son and I had Covid over Christmas, but the good news is I’m enjoying a lovely vacation at home this week. We’re both feeling much better, but sound terrible because we’re coughing a lot. I’m following the CDC guidelines and staying home for seven days, which means I won’t go back to work until Friday! Let’s return to Christmas for a moment. I got some amazing presents: The foot spa (YES!), a recipe binder, two books- Rosamunde Pilcher’s Winter Solstice and Jessie Itzler’s Living With a Seal, sweatpants and cozy socks from my daughter (ah, she knows me well), “Run More, Worry Less” tank top which I love and want to wear every single day (I’m wearing it right now), a portable tripod for my phone, and then at the bottom is my little stocking with some stocking stuffers- a sugar-free chocolate bar and some Starbucks Earl Grey tea bags, my favorite! Santa must have known I wouldn’t be able to go out to Starbucks for a week so he made sure I would still have my favorite tea. Somehow there were two other presents that didn’t make it into the picture- new running shorts from Athleta, and another book, I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. I wasn’t in my finest form on Christmas Day, and we didn’t even remember to take a picture of the tree until most of the presents were opened. I did get a picture of Muffin with her presents though: My son loves to give gifts that somehow involve self-improvement on the part of the recipient. His present was the recipe binder, which was billed as “the best gift you never knew you wanted.” The idea (or, his idea for me) is to have all my recipes in one place instead of rifling through various cookbooks, or scrolling through the internet. I’ve started this project, since I have the time: My sister will especially appreciate this gift because I will no longer be badgering her at every holiday, “Do you remember which recipe we used for rolls last year?” or “Can you send me the recipe for peanut butter balls again?” Good quarantine project. We’re also watching all the Harry Potter movies, and I’m reading the Rosamunde Pilcher book. So life is good. Except…. At this time of year I’m always fighting off post-Christmas depression. I just love everything about Christmas so much- the lights, decorations, the excitement of buying gifts, mysterious packages from Amazon arriving at the door, the cookies, the anticipation… when it’s over, everything just feels so blah. It’s always been hard for me, ever since I was a kid. I’ve tried everything- taking down the tree and decorations right away, leaving them up until January 6th (it’s bad luck to leave them up after epiphany!), planning a fun New Year’s celebration- and nothing works. I think the only way to prevent it would be to not care as much about Christmas in the first place. My husband likes Christmas, but he doesn’t LOVE it, and when it’s over he’s ready to move on to the next thing. So I just have to remind myself that post-Christmas depression is the price to pay for the amount of joy I get from the season. It will come again! My sister reminded me that before we know it, it will be July 4th and after that we’ll start to see Halloween things around. (Yep, we’re pretty nutty!) In the meantime I have to get through this low phase. I always do. I’m off to read my book! I would love to hear how other people deal with the end of the holidays. Do you get sad? Or are you excited to move on to the next thing? I’ll be happy to hear any suggestions!