Some days are duds. Let’s just call it like it is. The alarm doesn’t go off. Your child misses the bus. Your special needs child is more interested in dancing in his underwear than eating his breakfast. These are the kinds of days when a nice long mope(or grumble) come in really handy. You know what I’m talking about. You put on the sad face or the grumpy face. You march out into the world. You wave your middle finger at the slow driver in front of you and blame it all on bad karma. If you can’t be happy, no one should be happy.
So when I crawled out of bed this morning and looked out the window at the gray and colorless world, I made a decision. I could proceed with option number one(listed above) or I could pretend like it was my last day on earth and celebrate. For me, celebration means changing my thought patterns. Instead of focusing on all the things I can’t do, I decided to focus on the things I can. So I put on my running shoes and opened the front door.
I like to solve all of the world’s problems when I exercise. My brain is busier than a herd of cats on a can of tuna. I’ve got problems and worries and heartaches, enough for at least 2 other people, but alas, I have to deal with them on my own. At the bottom of the first hill I realized that my first problem was climbing the hill and I decided to put all of my energy into that. I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but it was steep and I was crabby. Still, I didn’t die so I feel like problem #1 was solved. So after I prayed my standard prayer, “God help me!” (sorry it’s not fancy) I started punching the air with my fists. I am an excellent air boxer. I punch up. I punch down. Then I flop my arms at the side like a chicken. All this flopping serves a purpose. It raises my heart rate AND reminds criminals that want to harm me that I am not sane and I will go all MC Hammer on them if they try to grab me, but I digress.
As you can imagine, I get quite a few stares on these excursions. I laugh with them, of course. I am not above laughing at myself. So after the first walker I encountered smiled at me, I got a little spunky and decided to jog. I must say, I thought I looked very cool running downhill. I was all “look at me in my spandex!” Until I remembered I was wearing spandex. And it wasn’t new. And it wasn’t very supportive. And I’ve born three children from my loins. Oy. I happened to see myself in the reflection of a building I passed and realized something incredible, I look quite a bit like a floppy fish.
And that’s when I started to laugh.
For me, exercise has never been about looking cool or being better than everyone else. It started as a torturous endeavor aimed at shrinking my waistline. Then it turned into a mood enhancing activity. Now, I exercise because I like to entertain my neighbors. Yes, that’s Margaret climbing a steep hill on her bicycle in her culottes. Don’t know what culottes are? Wonder no more. Only I don’t have her body so mine are tight around the middle and not so flowy. Some people call them yoga pants, but on me they look like culottes.
So when my second born child called to say he had overslept and missed the bus, I did not panic. It’s hard to panic when you’re laughing. Instead, I found a quick solution, told him he was awesome, and went right on flopping down the hill. By the time I got home I was in a pretty decent mood and was fully vested in celebration mode. So when my youngest wanted to dance in his underwear, I just joined right in. Well, sort of. That’s what it looks like when I’m hopping up and down as I try to put my pants on.
The life of a full-time working mother is interesting. Improvisation helps. Tenacity is encouraged. Laughter is key. Celebrate your life today by laughing at this floppy fish!
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