Back in the Saddle Again

Okay, so maybe I'm mixing my metaphors. It turns out, though, that I'm not talking about being back on the road in my car, but I am talking about being back  a) in the pool, and b) on my bike, so I guess the "saddle" terminology is applicable (at least to the bike).

Full disclosure: I just turned 53 (does that count as "early '50s still?), am in the process of getting divorced (enough said--I don't like seeing the phrase in black and white, even on a blog that no one will read, but it is what it is), and I am on sabbatical this coming academic year. Ergo, it's the perfect time for a full blown "mid-life crisis." So...

It's been the better part of the year since I've been in the pool. I injured my rotator cuff very badly last October (my doctor recently told me--and perhaps not that helpfully--that I'm "...not going to have the shoulder of a 25-year-old any more"--gee!), and since then I haven't been near the pool.  But today I changed that. I signed up for a Sprint Triathlon at the end of August (it's nice to have a goal to help keep me motivated to train--as if a bike ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu wasn't enough to shock me into high gear, so to speak), and I thought I better try some swimming. And so, gingerly, and with some trepidation, I swam for the first time in a LONG time. I didn't swim long (I'm generally not that great at under doing it, alas, but I think I did today), or very far, but I did swim, and mostly (at least for the moment), with very little pain. And, surprisingly, I didn't feel like I was going to drown even once, and I actually enjoyed swimming.

And then this evening I got on my road bike and took my first ride of the season around Tamarack Lake (okay, so its really more like a puddle at the moment). I've been riding a perfectly fine old trail bike to start my long haul to getting into bike shape, but I have been slow to break out the road bike. But I did today, and it was a beautiful evening to do the Tamarack Loop. I have a long way to go--the rolling hills of Northwest Pennsylvania are no match for the Roof of the World roads of the Himalayas, but hey, it's a start. Baby steps.

In the meantime, I have ample opportunity to practice Forgiveness (still my year-long, one-word Resolution--it's a gift that keeps on giving!), and also Peace; I'm trying to choose to see Peace instead of all the Havoc I create in my mind. It seems to be the teaching of the week: it keeps showing up in my orbit--in my email, on Face Book (thanks Gabby Bernstein), in my bedside reading. If only seeing Peace instead of anxiety, jealousy, fear, loss, anger, resentment, etc. could be attained the way one trains for a race (just trust the training!), then...