2 shoes - 2 miles - 1 year
Last week was my “1-year anniversary of wellness.”
What is this 1-year anniversary “thing”? So glad you asked.
If you’ve read my blog posts in total, you’ve learned I have been on a 6-month cycle for almost a decade… Step 1: an idea of an explanation. Step 2: treat idea. Step 3: get a boost in quality of life for 6 months. Step 4: drop off a cliff again.
It usually timed out like this: Step 1: December-ish. Step 2 & 3: January – May-ish. Step 4: Start decline through the summer and drop off the cliff in September.
I told my husband many years ago and many times over … if I can be well for a whole year, we might actually have finally figured out what is wrong.
Last year I skirted through September (2020) and encountered no cliffs. It’s been a year since I painted my house then plowed into homeschooling our kids with beach travel rolled in. There have been a few dips, but all have been identified, resolved, and my health has continued to gain strength as the year has progressed.
365 days
365 days of stability.
365 days of being able to book the calendar and keep the plan.
365 days of easy laughter and dancing with my kids.
365 days of thriving memories.
365 days of firsts
My first day of packing a lunch for the road that was sufficient to meet my nutritional needs because I had physical reserves to pull from.
My first day of school for my new career.
My first day of meeting a new friend and having the margin to invest and build a friendship.
My first day of eating baked goods in a decade (gluten free & sugar free).
My first day of getting sick with an acute germ and knowing what was happening.
My first day of traveling on vacation and being well every single day to do what I wanted to do.
My first day of fitting the birthday parties in among the life activities without having to block my calendar for a week before and after to prepare and recover.
My first day of travel baseball that I could sit at the ballpark until 9 PM in the freezing cold without dinner and literally not pass out from the lack of food.
My first day of swim team in which my body wasn’t crying out for me to drag my body home to climb into bed.
My first day of seeing Jesus’ footprints in the sand all of these years.
To many of you, these firsts are table stakes… I have low expectations out of life. Being sick for a decade taught to expect nothing out of this life. EVERYTHING is a gift.
Nothing is to be taken for granted. Not even the ability to walk back and forth from the camper to the house as I load and prep for one of our epic beach trips.
On my anniversary, I had a million things to do. Instead of doing any of those things I did 5 simple things:
(If you see any of these, celebrate with me their meaning. They each tell a story from my journey.)
1) I took my running shoes to the place where I re-learned to walk many years ago – the park
2) I took a nap I didn’t need - because I could
3) I wrote my deepest gratitude to my God in my journal – because He did the work
4) I bought, with my kids, a memento of memory for this day – because altars matter
5) I laughed, I danced, and celebrated with my people that we made it – because it took all of us doing it together for it to work
Every anniversary is a big deal. A birthday. A marriage. A degree completed. A job maintained.
This was the biggest of my life. I survived all of the other ones to get here. I have never fought so hard or waited so long for anything in my whole life. I have never wanted anything so deeply or let it go so completely believing it would never happen. I have never been stripped of everything in my personal humanity so completely. I have never met Jesus so fiercely.
I dare you to fight hard for what matters to you. I dare you to wait long for what is most important. I dare you to face Jesus honestly.
2 shoes. 2 miles. 1 year… I thought you might like to know.
bless,
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