On Living Differently


Sometimes life brings changes and you have to live differently.  Yesterday I went down to the track at the new high school to do some walking.  While I was there another lady was alternating between running and walking.  She passed me a couple of times.  In the past, I would have felt very self conscious about being passed by a runner at a track.  Enough that I might not have ever chosen to go there.  Which was pretty self defeating in the long run.  And who the heck really cares?

It was fun to see the lady run until she had to stop, then walk a bit then run a bit.  After a while, I got to see that she was really pushing her boundaries and she was not a spring chicken (somewhat like me!).   A little later her daughter arrived and they did some running together.  It was sweet.

Raising a child who experiences the world differently has taught me that we all have to come to the point where we embrace who we are and do the things we want and are able to do.   And sometimes we need help and encouragement in figuring that out.   

2 comments:

Michi Ball / Prairie Prims said...

Her name must have been Mrs.Jones! :) You inspire Dixie Redmond, in any ways!
Thank You
Michi

Jan Conwell said...

I used to be terribly self-conscious when I entered the professional world as an instructor on an AF Base. It was so different to the casual college atmosphere. All these people in suits and in AF uniforms! All so professional and important! Surely everybody was looking at me (fraud! imposter!) and I probably had a run in my hose or a big ol' booger hangin out.

At some point it occurred to me that 99.99% of those people barely even noticed I had passed them in the hall, because they were busy thinking about where they were headed, or where they'd just left, or what they were supposed to pick up at the store on their way home.

That helped me immensely, and I learned to just be wherever I was without worrying about it. Hard to believe I was ever that way, but I can still remember how acutely anxious I was back then.


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden