Who's Schedule are You On?

This past week I was reminded of another of Aesop's Fables, The Tortoise & The Hare. And after thinking about it for a while, my take-away from it has changed completely from what it was trying to convey.

Here's to the hare in the fable of The Tortoise & the Hare! The hare was faster, got to take a nap & maybe didn't beat the tortoise but still finished the race. (I will be using Tortoise & Turtle interchangably & aslo Hare & Bunny. Don't get zoologically correct on me. They still serve the same purpose as far as I'm concerned.) Now, why was I thinking of this tale?

Well, it goes back a few days to Friday when I got my 2nd shot for the Shingles vaccine. I thought it would be like my 1st shot a few months ago. -That I'd feel icky for a day & then feel fine. Well.... not so lucky this time. My arm hurt & then several hours later, I started feeling very tired. Come to the middle of the night, I had a fever with chills & could not sleep at all. I was achy, tossing & turning & felt like a world war was going on inside me. I think I was finally able to sleep around 4 AM. When I woke up I still was feeling fairly awful but not quite as bad. All I could do was just sleep the whole entire day. I didn't have to work; which was nice. However, I couldn't stop thinking of how much time I was wasting & not contributing to the world or to our household or just being a productive member of society in general. Of course that lead to how in the hell do I think I'm going to be able to travel around by sailboat?.... blah, blah, blah. It's the downward thinking spiral that always comes when I get sick.

Getting sick comes around a lot for me. I have a slew of health issues. Not looking for pitty but want to explain how I get through life with these unfortunate circumstances. A lot of time I like to be in denial about my health because there is a good amount of time that I feel pretty good. So the last thing I want to do is think about anything negative during those times.

I have a couple of autoimmune diseases. -Hypothyroidism & also Addison's Disease. I'm not going to get all medical on you but basically this means my body attacks it's own immune system & I can get sick easily & am tired a lot. Luckily it's not too out of control due to taking medication to regulate these things. On the other hand, stress, being cold, allergies & being tired combat my immune system even more so I tend to get out of whack quite easily.

And what happens to most of us when we don't feel well? We start to mope & get depressed because there is a snag in our plans. We can't hang out with friends or be there for them in their celebrations or in their hard times. We can't clean up the messes around the house or help out our spouse. Hell, I even feel guilty about not playing with our dog.

Anyway, I started to think well, the Tortoise went slowly & won the race. He was slow but steady & didn't give up. But then I thought, how boring is that?! No! I think I can kind of relate more to the hare. -Not because I'm fast but because I like pep in my step & even though I'm competitive by nature, I want to enjoy things as much as possible while I'm doing them. And then when I need to take a break for a nap, I do. I feel guilty about this. But I'm learning that's just what I have to do. If I want to hop around like a bunny, then I also have to rest my body.

I think this is why I love being outside so much! Though, I love being outside where my health isn't going to suffer from it. -Which seems to be in tropical climates. This is why I am determined to head south so quickly. I do wish I could adapt to climate everywhere but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to physically change that. So the next best thing is to change the atmosphere around me.

It is taking longer than I'd like of course. I feel like time is just running out. But it always is from the time that we are born. What I really am trying to change mind my into thinking is that I'm not old. I will never be old. -Unless I decide that I am. I'm older than I was yesterday or 20 years ago but I'm not old. You can ask Matt, I'm sure he thinks he's dealing with a 3 year old at times. -And I'm not talking about Zephyr. My body is aging or should I be more diplomatic & say that it’s evolving? Right now I can move about. And I want to take full advantage of that in whatever ways my body will let me.

Sick in bed times aren't fun times to take photos of. But I wanted to still mention them because I'm pretty sure we all have difficulties that we have to live with that do make it hard to move forward at times.

Some people have kids. I find it incredible that parents can get anything else done besides just not allowing their kids to starve. I know I couldn't do that with my conditions. So kudos to all of you who are parents!

Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

There are definitely days that I think to myself that I'm just setting myself up to fail with this venture into sailing around everywhere. Yet, I'm also learning that everyone goes through setbacks. The hare realized that there really isn't a race against each other in this life & decided to have fun & get to the finish line on his own terms. I really feel sorry for the tortoise. I think he would have had a more enjoyable day being in the ocean, eating seaweed or whatever they eat. Don't let your ego keep nagging at you, making you think that you should be in a race that doesn't even exist. Well, unless you're going to the Olympics & need to actually win a race. I really can't help you there.

I am an idiot for doing this race! I could be at the beach with my friends right now!

Man, this is so fun! I can’t believe Gary wanted to join some race instead of this! Gary, always having to prove he’s so macho!

Happy bunnies because they are doing bunny things. In bunny time.

So now that things are starting to look up again it's easy to feel grateful for all that I do have & be positive & hopeful. Pretty sure though that another pity party for one will come up again when my health is on the downside. What I can do is work on making those parties shorter. Although it might be fun to see a pity party of 12. -Kind of like a Mad Hatter Tea Party where everyone starts crying until we're all swimming in a big sea of tears. And then we'll all stop because it'll kind of be like we're swimming in the ocean in the tropics! How lovely is that?!

And on that note, or vision -should I say, I'll be back next week with actual boat info. Feel free to share with me any difficult things you have to deal with on a regular basis to make your life work the way you want it to.

Thanks so much for reading!