12in12, Day 8. OR It hurts so … good?

This weekend was a real mixed bag, so to speak. Much like with the Nova Scotia weather and its frequent changes there were just so many different emotions flying around that I think my system has gone into overdrive or perhaps is actually beginning to force some sort of a shut down.

It went from a very positive explorative interview regarding a business opportunity, to highly emotionally charged confrontation, to worrying about loved ones, to successfully meeting challenge without prodding, to a sense of foreboding, to helplessness and loss, to feelings of unconditional love and support, to relaxation, to productivity, to progress, to physical pain and exhaustion, to … on and on, it seemed.

The highlights, the positive events that I wish to focus and report on, begin here.

Today begins week 2 of the 12in12 challenge. I have successfully met the daily challenge so far. On days 5 and 6 I had to get a little creative and fit my walks in around momstaxi services.

Day 7 I got a much needed break, after arriving at dad’s emotionally spent, and took his dog for a walk in the dark. We grabbed a flashlight and headed down to the wharf first where the water was calling me as it softly washed onto the beach. I was reluctant to move on after seeing that the Christmas tree always erected by Santa’s helpers at the end of the wharf had gone up again this year (after a couple of winters that mom and dad had spent away at Christmastime). I could feel mom’s presence right there with me telling me how fortunate they were to have such loving neighbors who remembered and continued the tradition again, for dad. And so a few tears flowed as I walked back up the path and continued along the road past my parents’ home until I could hear the ocean calmly lapping on the shore again as I was once again following the water’s edge. The fog wrapped a blanket around me, secure and cocooning as I needed, and I felt the serenity of the place my parents have made home for the last decade.

After returning to the house we had a nice spaghetti dinner with dad and my girlies, relaxed by the fire, tucked the girlies into bed, had a long chat, and then I had a soak in the hot tub. There is nothing like a tranquil soak on the deck overlooking the silent cove. The fog was so heavy I couldn’t see much of the water, but I knew it was there, absorbing all of my troubles for those moments.

I pictured mom sitting with me as she would have done chatting away filling every silent void with thoughts and expressions of her love of life and all it once offered her. Dad and I both retired to bed after watching the last end of a semi-final curling game. And I slept like I haven’t slept in many, many weeks.

Today, Day 8, youngest girly asked if we could go for a walk. I suggested she invite Grampy, and that maybe we all could go. After lunch we did just that. We carried out some long-held traditions the girlies had with their Nanny and Grampy. It gave them peace to know these things did not have to stop happening even though Nanny was no longer with us to share them. In fact, she was very much with us as her granddaughters chose treasures from their beachcombing that remind them of Nanny and will be used in creations to aid in that for much time to come.

After returning home I felt agitated and couldn’t shake the hurting. As a distraction while the girls were still up and I needed to hold it together, I worked on some new challenges to assist with my 12in12 reading commitment for later in the year. I took the #50bookpledge and signed up for the To Be Read 2012 Challenge.

Once the girlies were tucked into bed, the sadness just rolled over me and I let myself just be – however I needed to be – for a few minutes. I sought out a little comforting and then sat down to write this post.

Tomorrow is another day. Day 9 of the first month of #12in12, just 21 more to go!

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2012 To Be Read (TBR) Challenge

I have decided to seek another challenge or two to help me meet some of my 12in12 commitments, one being: the 2012 To Be Read (TBR) Challenge (as I heard about via a friend’s book review blog).

Some of these books have been on one of my shelves for more than ten years. The to-be-read pile became a to-be-read shelf, then 2 shelves, and now… well I don’t know yet. I’m not yet organized since our move. I did however receive 3 books for Christmas in addition to the half dozen I have accumulated since moving. But, shhhh, don’t tell you-know-who! 😉

My to-be-read books for 2012 follow:

The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison

Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet

The Widow of the South – Robert Hicks

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Life of Pi – Yaan Martel

Cry, The Beloved Country (Oprah’s Book Club) – Alan Paton

The Known World: A Novel – Edward D. Jones

Midwives – Chris Bohjalian

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood

Here On Earth – Alice Hoffman

Unless – Carol Shields

Alt:

Charming Billy – Alice McDermott

Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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12 in 12, Month 1 Day 4, OR “2×15 = 30”

Sometimes you just do what it takes to make things happen. If your commitments are important enough to you, you realize that it is all about choices, taking control of you life in whatever small way necessary and making it work.

Yesterday I had two medical appointments and obligations to fill as Moms Taxi, in addition to new furniture arriving and belongings needing to be re-organized back up off of the floor. So the likelihood of my fitting in a 30 minute walk were slim. However, 15 + 15 = 30, so how about two short walks? I set the rules here, and this is what works for me. So I park 15+ minutes walk from one appointment and walk to and from the car to the office. Walking… done!

What do you do to fit in those important, but all to often pushed to the back-burner activities?

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12 in 12, Month 1, Day 3

One thing I have learned over the years is that there is usually greater success in making change, for myself and/or for the greater good, when accountable.

Publishing my plans, commitments, goals and inspirations helps keep me on track, especially if I publish regular reports of my progress. It’s the times that I have nothing to report that leave me feeling awful for not sticking with my plan.

I also rely a lot on my Partner-in-crime to keep me honest. He asks me if I did what I committed to doing. He encourages me to fit it in even when I feel like I can’t. He cheers for me when I follow through.

Today I almost didn’t get my walk in. I had great plans and was really looking forward to it. Then things came up, and my pain escalated. Ian came home and sent me out the door before I did anything else. It was a lovely evening for a walk and I truly enjoyed my solitude for the 30 minutes. 🙂

What are you working on that could use a little boost? Have you made it public? Are you reporting to those who know about it? Have you found the strategy to be useful to you?

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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12 in 12 – Month 1 – Day 2

30 minute walk complete.

Weather was really awful, and I had no idea what time to expect my children to be dropped off by their dad, so I opted to use the treadmill to get my walk in anyway in the morning. After reading more from Steve Kamb about barefoot running on Nerd Fitness I decided to try barefoot walking. I could definitely feel a difference in my stride, etc. Otherwise, I came off unscathed. Perhaps I’ll try again sometime.

People ask when I have a regular fitness routine how I fit it all in. Having a treadmill certainly helps. I actually don’t mind walking on the treadmill … because I can read! Try doing that safely outdoors! (I’ll admit to listening to audiobooks when walking/running sometimes though). I’m reading a light read right now: “Knit the Season” by Kate Jacobs. It’s book three of a series I quite enjoy about a bunch of women with intertwined lives and friendships.

Somehow every escape story I have turned to since mom’s passing has had something in it about a mother (or other parent) dieing, and frequently of cancer. This is no exception, which I’d forgotten, however that actually happened in a previous book. Now people are getting on with things. Hopefully that’s me/us too.

So that helped to get the walk done, thanks to a little prodding from my hubby.

The rest of the day was spent finishing putting Christmas away, researching online, and shopping with my girlies.

Tomorrow? Who knows, but there will be a 30 min. walk in there somewhere!

How are your new year’s resolutions or 2012 commitments coming?

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2012 – Day 1

So here we are, a new day, a new week, a new month, a new year. I made a plan for this year. 12 in 12: 12 commitments, 12 months in 2012. I simply plan that I will commit to one thing every month for the year of 2012. This month I am committed to walking. EVERYday.

There are plenty of changes that I want to make. Not because it is a new year, but because I am on medical leave and need to become healthy again. After an extremely stressful 2011, I can only hope things will begin to improve. Now that the holiday hubbub is over, and all of the major events required after my mother’s death complete, things have GOT to settle down.

I wrote in September how much I was looking forward to October, that is was finally time for me. Two weeks later mom was diagnosed with an untreatable cancer and her health began to decline steadily and rapidly. Time for me, was once again put on the backburner. And time for my mom & dad became the top priority. I still have things I wish to do for my mom, and with my dad, but there are no real timeframes anymore.

So this year is my year. It’s time to figure out what the hell I want to do when I grow up, and it’s time to do it. It’s time to get this pain under control. It’s time to stop living for tomorrow. Rather, to do right now and live for today, for this moment.

So I have things I wish to change, lots of them. I know that to jump in head first will have unwanted results. I need to make small changes in increments and make them for life. So until I get this walking thing established, all other changes that require consistency and discipline will wait.

Today, I walked. Tomorrow, I will walk again. One foot in front of the other. Babysteps to better health and wellness.

From 2011December3WeddingEdits

How do you implement change, and what are your priorities for the foreseeable future?

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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12in12 – a pleasant twist on resolutions

12 in 12 – fantastic take on resolutions from Fitarella.com

12 commitments, 12 months in 2012.

These are mine:

January

Walk at least 30 mins. Everday

Pick one for the next month Before the month end!:

Write (journal and/or blog) at least 60 mins. Everyday

Read at least 60 mins. Everday

Make and share one photo Everday

Unplug by 9pm Everyday

Practice yoga Everday

Cycle Everday

Run Everyday

Practise Mindfulness Everday

Practise Meditation Everday

Call someone I care about Everyday

Go to Goodlife Everyday

Please share your 12in12 with me below or drop me a note!

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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Finding our new normal

The grieving process has so many aspects to it. We grieve the loss of our loved one. We grieve the loss of our future as we envisioned it. We grieve the loss of our daily normal life as we knew it.

For those of us directly effected by that normal daily life it can be the most challenging, emotional, exhausting part of grief.

When my ex-husband and I split up 6 years ago this was most definitely true for me and our girlies.

When we lost my 59 year old grandmother suddenly to liver disease 25 years ago, this was certainly true for my grandfather.

Since losing my 59 year old mother after a short illness with cancer 4 weeks ago, this is absolutely true for my father.

Nothing prepares us for the grief or loss in such circumstances. It is raw. It is ever present. It comes in waves. And it overcomes us.

There are no tried and true answers. There is no remedy for grief. Time is the ultimate healer. Yet, I do try to assist this process along.

Holidays and special occasions bring with them added intensity to feelings. Some of our traditions and rituals bring great comfort with the wash of happy memories that come with them. Others bring an unanticipated painful flood of raw grief.

It’s not possible to stop the hurting, nor is it healthy to try to do so. However, I have found that creating new memories and traditions that will be associated with them have brought comfort. The things that I have found most challenging to face, I tried to change in some way. Letting someone new take it on, or doing it in a new way, and creating a joyful association with the new rituals that will continue with our new normal.

The firsts are always the toughest. This will be our first Christmas without my mom. We will all be gathered in my home, which became the new tradition after my girlies and I moved back to Nova Scotia. Every Christmas that I have them home with me, we host and the girls get to sleep in their own beds before waking up to the spoils of Santa’s mid-night visit. Christmases without my children are very different, and intentionally so.

This year I will prepare mom’s Christmas brunch on the eve. We’ve asked my grandfather to provide a soup for Christmas Eve that he hasn’t cooked for us since he remarried. Mom won’t be here to overfill the stockings with her little extras that could fill a stocking each on their own. I decided to take care of everyone’s stockings myself rather than try to recruit help when no one is in the spirit. And this year my sister, dad & I will prepare the feast without mom’s singing to keep us inspired.

There are gifts under the tree from mom. These will be emotional and special in her all-to-obvious absence. It’s also far too reminiscent of a Christmas long ago, when the three of us kids unwrapped some very special knits that mom’s mom had completed, right down to the wrappings before she became ill herself.

Yet, it will be the first Christmas in six years that dad will have all of his children under the same roof as he. The first ever that all of his children and grandchildren will be. It will be the first that we are all together with my grandfather (mom’s dad) and wife, and my uncle (mom’s brother), just like the many Christmases after we lost Nanny.

Family drawing together to guide one another through a difficult and bittersweet time. Drawing upon the children for the joyful spirit that most of us aren’t naturally inclined to this year, we’ll make it so for the girlies.

DO right now. That which is most important.

Have you ever thought about what you want from life? Have you ever REALLY thought about it?

What is MOST important to you. If you had to make sacrifices in your life dreams, what could you absolutely NOT miss?

Since my loved one was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I’ve found that my priorities have become all the more clear to me. What have I identified as being the MOST important? Family.

I’ll bet if you took a real hard look at your own, you’d say the same.

Why is that even when we KNOW our greatest priorities, we rarely treat them as such?

How many of us are guilty of letting life get in the way?

Remember that old saying? “Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?… When it comes to relationships of any value to you, it’s more like: “never put off until tomorrow what you value today…”

I’ve been completing some projects that are really important, but just hadn’t gotten done. Have been making some decisions that were being put off and most importantly, have been putting the most important people and activities to the top of my priority list. It is so unfortunate that it takes the circumstances of a loved ones’ sudden terminal illness to wake up. Don’t let that be you.

Do today, right now, what is important. Don’t put off the things that you most value in life.

Tell your loved ones how much you care about them. Give hugs. Talk about the important stuff. Most of all make the time to have no regrets.

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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Guest post on Balance My Life

Check it out! I was asked to contribute an article on Balance My Life.

My Balance is… in acceptance

http://balancemylife.ca/livealias/my-balance-is.html

How about yours?

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Like so many, most of my adult life has been spent spinning – one high-stress situation to the next.

Then I turned a new leaf after nearly a decade of living on edge. I have just begun learning how to function in a state of “normal”. Finally: I’m done school; my new job while meaningful is low-stress (in comparison); I have a supportive spouse settled into our blended life/family; we own our own home; and I am at home to greet my children after school one to two days each week…

I have been in over my head so many times, with my body telling me I had to make a change even when I felt mentally I was coping just fine. I have always struggled with finding balance. I love working, and have a strong desire to be a leader and innovator. On the other hand I also love having time to focus on my family. I have swung on a pendulum between wanting it all and wanting none of “it” – finally coming to the decision that I simply cannot. I cannot have “it” all. I won’t be happy with one extreme or the other. So I made a conscious decision to seek a middle ground: part-time employee and part-time at-home parent.

This was not an easy choice. I had to give up the desire to be in charge (at work). Not being woken for urgent calls, not having to rearrange everything in my life for a crisis at work, not scrambling to get my children taken care of, not having to fix everyone else’s problems… these are benefits to my overall well being that are worth making sacrifices for.

Even in balance, I still frequently stray down that familiar path of needing to be busier, more involved and more successful. I think most of us do at one time or another. I have to reign myself in. In an attempt to cater to my desire for more I have given myself permission to become involved in some personal projects that I can work on at whatever pace works for me at the time. This means when I have too much on my plate the projects take a back seat, and when things slow down – or I have a need for a creative outlet – they are there to pick back up again.

Balance is whatever works for you. If you are a parent: You may thrive on careers and find balance in hiring nurturing caregivers that become part of your family. You may choose not to have children at all. You may choose parenthood over the workforce and might return to a career later in life, if ever. I have chosen a middle ground. I may never make the big goals of my career, but I also will not have regrets about spending more time with my family.

Mostly, balance requires accepting the choices we make,while acknowledging that we are the lucky ones. In Canada, there are few things in life that most of us do not have some sort of choice about.

Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun, email me at ceilidho at ceilidhontherun dot com, or use my contact form!

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