I've been thinking about focus and goals and one word ideas for the New Year. What set this off (aside from my usual end-of-year reflections:) is a challenge with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild - 'one little word'. The idea is to make some kind of quilted sign for yourself to remind you of your goal for the year.
Many years in the past my word has been Focus - I'm an extremely distractable person and it helps me to make an extra effort to stick to the subject at hand, whatever it might be. :) This year, though, I think I need to spend more time thinking about my physical state and my health. I'm thinking my word might need to be something like 'healthy' - good food, good exercise, good care, etc.
Yesterday before I drove to work I had two store-related errands to do and the doing brought my health very realistically to mind. One of the things I had to do was to stop at BJ Warehouse and buy a new toner cartridge for our laser printer in Manager's Alley. By the time I got there, around 11 a.m., the parking lot was pretty full and the store was busy with shoppers.
I often half-joking tell people I can only walk 'fifty steps' now due to my body's limitations (Tarsal Tunnel in my feet, arthritis and two blown discs in my lower back, an excess weight of 100+ pounds, have had surgery on each knee already, etc). Without my habitual walking cane, that is pretty literal (that's how I know) - more than fifty steps and I have to stop to rest, bed over, sit down if possible. I was talking to Karen on Monday evening at the store about that very topic so it was fresh in my mind.
I had to park pretty far from the front door of BJs so I decided to actually count my steps and pay attention to my state of body. It took 214 steps to get from my car door to the laser cartridge's shelf place. :P At about 220 steps, on the way to check out, my lower right back started sending up fireworks of complaint and my walking speed dropped by half. :P By the time I walked back to my car (MUCH more slowly than I walked in), the fireworks were bright red and ran down to my knee and up to the middle of my ribs. Good thing I had the cane!
Took me quite a few minutes sitting in the car to recover and drive on to the store. (sigh)
I love being out doors - the day was chilly yesterday (low 40's) with a light breeze and bright sunshine (winter is the only time I actually enjoy the feel of the sun's warmth:). The trees are bare and their branches make beautiful lace patterns against the sky. The 200+ steps going inward were lovely ... not so much the ones going back to my car. No matter how pretty the weather, it is really hard to enjoy when you are in pain.
Now, I'm not tryiing to complain here or whine ... just to illustrate why focusing on 'healthy' might be a good thing for me to do (not to mention losing at least some of my excess poundage). :P I'm still thinking about words, but I'm pretty sure I need to do more than just think about this one!
Linda
PS I just read a fascinating blog post here about Japan's 'One Word' for the new year - Kizuna or bonds/ties (as in family ties, friendship ties, etc). Very cool!
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