Eating an Elephant

My apologies for my lack of posting lately. My plate has been full. You see I've been eating an elephant. Big task for a vegan and a little overwhelming at times. I have made many drastic life changes in the last 8 months and with those changes comes work. I have left a 22 year marriage, moved back to Canada after 21 years away and started to reestablish myself in a new community. I chose to do all these things but that doesn't mean at times I didn't feel bogged down, instead of eating the elephant there have been times I was just choking on it. Instead of looking at the bite in front of me I would start to look at the whole thing. 

There were times when I thought I had gotten through a leg of the thing to turn around and find out it had grown back. Not everything could be accomplished easy and in one sitting. Some things needed to be done two or even three times. I wasn't always making forward progress but slowly the list diminished and the elephant went from being a giant bull to a little calf. Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room at times I would address it directly. When I was scared of the elephant I would think of him dancing around in a pink tutu and quite frankly nothing wearing a pink tutu is that frightening. 

Throughout this whole process I have been grateful for my years and experience in endurance events. Quite frankly, life is one big endurance event and the races I have done have just been training days for the real deal. In a race there are always set backs and changes in plans and goals. Life is no different. In races I look at the challenges as ways to get stronger and overcome. I have tried to apply this to life. If you want to have a stellar race you need to go through some pain and discomfort. If you want to just get through a race you can just coast along in the comfort zone. Same with life. To really live a life you need to move out of the comfort zone at times and have the courage that you are strong enough to get to the other side. 

When we toe the line in an Ironman or a 100 mile running race or any other big endurance challenge we are best to not look at the whole race. It will overwhelm us and leave us feeling a bit paralyzed by the huge undertaking. I have practiced this lately. I have focused on getting to the next buoy in the swim, the next aid station and at times just putting one foot in front of the other. By keeping in the moment and dealing with the immediate task at hand I have slowly been able to move through each stage of the changes. I can't force things and have to let the race come to me at times. I need to slam a gel or in this case a glass of wine now and then to keep from bonking. But now when I look up I can see the finish line in the distance. I have had the best cheering squad in this event and even though they couldn't eat the elephant for me, my friends and family have sat at my table and helped me cut it up. I know this isn't my last big event and that my life is onto a new and exciting chapter. I also know that there will be more elephants that come along and the only way to eat them is one bite at a time. People ask how you run 100 miles, you don't run 100 miles you run one step at a time and eventually you have covered 100 miles. 

Nothing happens until the pain of remaining the same outweighs the pain of change. Arthur Burt