Every night this week I’ve had the same thought: ”I’ll go running tomorrow morning” and every morning I wake up thinking “maybe” and then somehow each “maybe” has dissipated into “maybe later” or “maybe the gym today” or “maybe just some stretching and core.” Although there have been lots of distractions throughout the week to keep me from getting depresssed about my laissez faire attitude, now that it’s Saturday and the pace has slowed down considerably, I’m starting to feel blue. Maybe I need a new trail to explore. It’s not likely I can go tomorrow (since Bobby is still out of town) but school starts on Monday. For this I am grateful. If only I were meeting my running partner Lisa in the Redwood forest above Oakland for a misty Winter run. *Sigh*
Otherwise, it has been really good to conjure more balance in my life. I am excited by a lot of mind/body/spirit extending possibilities for the next couple of months. March is my birthday month and it looks like that might include a retreat of some sort, either solo or with a good friend, in Sri Lanka (where I have wanted to go forever!) as well as a family elephant trekking adventure in Northern Thailand. Those who know me well, know of my elephant adoration. When I was pregnant with Saylor, Bobby and I went on a “babymoon” cycling trip around the Golden Triangle region of N. Thailand and for the first time, I rode astride an elephant’s neck, fed bunches of bananas and sticks of sugar cane to them and generally marveled at their beauty, strength and grace. Since then, we have talked about going back and spending more time with elephants but now that we’re here, in their very backyard, it would be rude not to really! And to be able to bring the kids and let them take care of their very own (young) elephants for a couple of days? Somebody pinch me.
Continuing to have these kinds of mini adventures and allowing them to teach and show me (and my kids) new ways of being and understanding is critically important to me. I want also to anchor myself with work and projects that are satisfying and worthwhile to everyone involved. This is where I am in a bit of a rut. So, although the week may be over, I’m confident that balance will be in bold, highlighted and underlined on my list of “things to strive for” for quite some time.
