Thursday afternoon. I am a very emotional person. I'll lay that right on the table, up front. That said, the past few weeks have been filled with so many emotional highs and lows that I feel like I've spent a month at Disneyland.
The lowest moments came as I faced up to the fact that I'd allowed myself to slip, once again, from eating properly and exercising regularly. I had to face myself in the mirror, get over my anger and disappointment, and just pick myself up and move forward. I'm a brooder and a thinker, so doing that wasn't easy for me, but I did do it. Actually, I'm still doing it, to be truthful.
The highs? There have been so many.
* I finished a 10 mile training session last week, tired and sore, even after I thought perhaps I'd let it get too far away from me and lost my marathon dream
* I found links to my rambling thoughts on not one, but two separate sites (thank you both so much!)
* I got to spend a wonderful, sunny, October afternoon with my mother -- healthy and happy
* My wonderful team, made up of such disparate individuals who are each dear to me in their own way, came together and took me out to lunch at my favorite restaurant to celebrate my birthday.
All of those things made me smile, but the most wonderful thing that's happened to me recently snuck up on me without any warning.
After I sent out a letter to everyone I know about my fundraising efforts for the marathon, I got some fantastic responses from people. Some offered encouragement and donations (thank you all, too), which was fabulous. And then there was an email from the lady who does payroll here at VLSCI. I've known her forever and she's just this quiet, unassuming lady, a little overweight but with a great smile. Yesterday, she sent me an email in response to a generic message about my diabetes and the marathon that I'd posted to the corporate classifieds bulletin board, and it very nearly broke my heart. She told me that she was newly diagnosed with diabetes, was terribly scared, terribly depressed, and felt very alone...until she read my message. She said that my story inspired her. Shocked, I am just shocked. And so incredibly flattered. And then, guilty. Guilty because I'm not always perfect, not even close, and now I have someone who looks up to me, as dorky as that sounds. She even asked if I would be her diabetic buddy, and I nearly wept. I have, possibly, made a difference in someone's life. Wow. That is just not a feeling I'm used to and I like it. Lots.
The lowest moments came as I faced up to the fact that I'd allowed myself to slip, once again, from eating properly and exercising regularly. I had to face myself in the mirror, get over my anger and disappointment, and just pick myself up and move forward. I'm a brooder and a thinker, so doing that wasn't easy for me, but I did do it. Actually, I'm still doing it, to be truthful.
The highs? There have been so many.
* I finished a 10 mile training session last week, tired and sore, even after I thought perhaps I'd let it get too far away from me and lost my marathon dream
* I found links to my rambling thoughts on not one, but two separate sites (thank you both so much!)
* I got to spend a wonderful, sunny, October afternoon with my mother -- healthy and happy
* My wonderful team, made up of such disparate individuals who are each dear to me in their own way, came together and took me out to lunch at my favorite restaurant to celebrate my birthday.
All of those things made me smile, but the most wonderful thing that's happened to me recently snuck up on me without any warning.
After I sent out a letter to everyone I know about my fundraising efforts for the marathon, I got some fantastic responses from people. Some offered encouragement and donations (thank you all, too), which was fabulous. And then there was an email from the lady who does payroll here at VLSCI. I've known her forever and she's just this quiet, unassuming lady, a little overweight but with a great smile. Yesterday, she sent me an email in response to a generic message about my diabetes and the marathon that I'd posted to the corporate classifieds bulletin board, and it very nearly broke my heart. She told me that she was newly diagnosed with diabetes, was terribly scared, terribly depressed, and felt very alone...until she read my message. She said that my story inspired her. Shocked, I am just shocked. And so incredibly flattered. And then, guilty. Guilty because I'm not always perfect, not even close, and now I have someone who looks up to me, as dorky as that sounds. She even asked if I would be her diabetic buddy, and I nearly wept. I have, possibly, made a difference in someone's life. Wow. That is just not a feeling I'm used to and I like it. Lots.
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