Now that I’m
a grandparent and retired I find that I’m not in as much of a hurry as I use to
be…except to get to the bathroom. I don’t
get annoyed as much when the Doctor or Dentist is 15 minutes late, or
Pennsylvania drivers sit at red lights 5 seconds after it turns green (a guaranteed
horn in Boston), or I get stuck in line in the grocery store behind the person
that has to count out their exact change.
I’d like to attribute it to my mindfulness meditation but I think it’s
simply age and the fact that I’m typically not in a hurry to get anywhere (other
than to visit the grandchildren).
While I’m on
the topic of grandchildren and patience, I had the pleasure of babysitting my
3 year old grandson the other day. Some
people would think that it would take a lot of patience, and they would be
right. He needed to be very patient
with me as I constantly forgot the names of all his Paw Patrol figures, was
totally confused about the Lego characters, and couldn’t quite mold the playdough
into the characters he wanted.
Actually, I have
a theory that your DNA changes with chemo and you grow a new set of patience
genes. In this fast paced, fast food, “I
want it now” society this could be a good thing. At least that’s what I thought until I
realized when it came to the topic of how long it was taking to recover from the
chemo/stem cell transplant, the patience gene was totally missing. Take running for example. It’s been over 2 years since I was released
from the hospital after the transplant and it’s safe to say that progress
getting back to jogging/running has been far short of my expectations. A
year ago, I almost gave up on ever running again. It was a year since I got out of the hospital
and despite walking almost every day, the best I could do was jog a quarter
mile before I had to stop and walk for a while.
I did the math and at this rate I’d
be almost 70 years old before I could run a mile and somewhere close to 90 before
I could run 5. Even with my new patience
genes, sticking with the run/walk efforts for three more years, through the cold/wet
winters and hot/humid summers to get to the goal of a mile seemed as likely as
the politicians getting together to address global warming. There
was one thing that kept me going for another year, the support I received for
Help in the Nick of Time when the best I could do was a 7-day jog/walk marathon
in 8 hours. With that motivation, and a ton of patience,
I’m happy to report I am now able to jog more than a mile without walking. It’s
what will let me achieve this year’s 7-day jog/walk in 6 hours. Sometimes being patient and sticking it out
is worth the effort. As long as I
continue to get support for helping children with cancer, I’m committed to putting
one foot in front of the other and blogging about the experience.
I’ve come to
terms with idea there are no more marathons in my future but I would like to be
able to run 5 miles before I’m 90 (maybe even before I’m 70). Even
better is to still be able to run 5 miles when I’m 90.
Till next
time…slogging and blogging away.
