Perspective Helps Everything

It’s marathon (and half-marathon, and marathon-relay) day for a lot of people in Rochester. Good luck everyone!  Seems like a good day to walk or run!  And as I am sitting here trying to motivate myself to clean or go to spinning class, the dull ache in my knee reminds me that I can’t run–there’s a twinge of longing and being left out, and then it’s gone because I’m determined not to dwell on things I can’t control.

As a wrap-up for the Juice Cleanse, I think it’s important to talk about the topic of perspective. Why?  Because none of us (except Joe) made it a full 72 hours without food. I had an apple yesterday—and I don’t feel badly about it! But I have a different perspective on this whole thing than the others. The Friends didn’t make it—one of them made it about 70 hours and I believe the other one quit at 46 or so.  I call both of those experiences “Success.”

We can think about our fantasies for what life should be like, how much we should weigh, what skills we should develop and use in life, career paths, spouses, friends, hobbies, attitudes that would serve us well.  But life doesn’t always live up to the fantasy (how’s that for an understatement!)—just because we watched something on TV that told us a 72-hour juice cleanse would be good, and because we planned to do one, doesn’t mean that a 46-hour juice cleanse was a failure.

Just because we didn’t spend time appreciating what we had, and our siblings, toys, family, yard, friends, and opportunities we had as children doesn’t mean that we failed at being a kid. We can learn from it, and begin appreciating things more now, and plan for our next steps by looking at what we’ve done in the past.

Whether it’s a juice cleanse, a diet, or something more life-like—like connecting with our families, or telling someone we love them—it doesn’t help to dwell on the past or the empty part of the cup (the part of the juice cleanse we didn’t do).

I know two things for sure:

1. If you never try, you’ll make a lot less progress than if you had.

2. If you start everyday looking at the positive side (Pollyanna’s glad game?) of what you accomplished yesterday and what you can do today, you are more likely to choose to do something good for you now.

My Mom sent me something in the mail yesterday (yes, there was money too—thanks Mom).

Also, go to this website and enter an address you lived at as a child.

At the end, you’ll write a postcard to yourself as the child who lived in that house (if you choose to do that part).