This morning a suffocating blanket of fog wrapped itself around our gloomy valley. I bundled up the boy's, buckled them into the trusty Jeep and slowly made our way across town to the gym. Due to fresh New Years resolutions, the parking lot was jam packed with cars. After five minutes of weaving my way through the isles, and wishing for March when the New years resolutions would be forgotten, I was able to steer my way in to a stall.
Already late for our aerobics class, I hustled Daemian into the daycare that was swarming with kids, trying my hardest not to have a panic attack thinking about the flu bugs that must be flitting around on the fingers of the children and their freshly picked noses. Since Hudson is still to young for the daycare, I hauled him, the car seat, the trusty purple backpack and myself into the fitness room. Music was already loadly pumping from the speakers, as women in spandex determinedly working on a set of burpees, tennis shoes narrowly missing us as I filed passed, primed and ready to shake my tail feathers.
I slowley unbundled Hudson from his cozy carrier, careful not to make any sudden movements that might awaken him and laid him gently in his fleece lined carseat. I silently prayed that he would find the earpeircingly load electronica music soothing enough to stay asleep and joined the rest of the sweaty women as they began a set of weighted lunges.
Hudson began to stir. I lovingly placed his binky between his lips and continued on. His face began to grimace, eventually turning into a wail and it was clear that two minutes of class time was all I was going to get.
Quietly reminding myself that, "this too shall pass", I buckled him back in to his kangaroo pouch and determinedly headed for the boring old treadmill where he quickly fell asleep on my chest to the gentle sway of my movements as I plodded along.
After fourty minutes on the doldrums of the hamsterwheel it was time to pick Daemian up. Feeling defeated, I freed my squirrely toddler from the germy bowels of daycare, fended off a tantrum with some bubble gum from the vending machine and headed for the car. Today was not my day. In fact it seemed like the whole week went this way. Not much headway being made, not much to look forward too. Down right depressing.
We turned the corner next to the squash ball Courts where some middle aged men were ferociously fighting for the ball and I ran into Jackie and her two little munchkins. Jackie is about a head taller than me and is one of the most outgoing girls I know. You never need to worry about awkward silence when she's around because she always has something interesting to say. Today as she approached, it seemed like the gloom was litterally deflecting off her sunny demeanor and I felt my mood already begining to lift.
We began chatting about one thing or another as her energetic, curly haired daughter and my mischievous little Daemian began to wrestle on the squeaky leather coaches in the lobby, their laughter ricocheting off the vaulted ceilings. Daemian loves a good wrestling match. Normally this fills me with anxiety as I try to read the other mothers thoughts on whether they find this behavior appropriate or reproachable, usually ending things before the first good tackle just in case. But Jackie was unshaken, laughing along with them while creating a good railing with her legs so neither toppled off the coach.
Jackie is always busy doing something. One day she's shuttling her tot off to preschool or dance. The next day she's saddling up for a dressage lesson, hosting a play group, or taking her kids swimming. Not only that but she still manages to keep her house spotless and work a part time job. Talk about a super mom!
Today she was heading to a gymnastics lesson. Knowing that I was planning to sign Daemian up for class eventually, she insisted that we tag along. Ugh. Didn't she know I was in the depths of a depression? Couldn't she see that the cold and fog had beaten me down leaving me lethargic and lifeless? Didn't it matter that I haven't slept for two months and was left with no energy to spare for silly things like FUN? I wracked my brain searching for every possible excuse, vocalizing a few to Jackie, "The baby will be hungry soon." "Daemian hasn't had lunch yet." mostly revolving around food. (Hindsight shows that I was probably the one who was hungry.) But Jackie's "Just Do It!" attitude got the best of me and soon we were off to gymnastics after a quick stop to Starbucks drive through for super healthy and calorie free cookies for all.
After arriving I could see I had made the right decision. Daemian could hardly contain his excitement and was quickly whisked away by his coaches to jump, flip and swing out all of his abundant energy. I was left on the sidelines to beam proudly at my little gymnast while chatting with Jackie and snuggling little Hudson.
I even ran in to an old buddy from middle school whom I reminisced with for a while. I was reminded of a picture hidden somewhere in the basement of our group of friends in matching denim shirts and jeans, cheesy smiles and ridiculous 90's, back to back, arms crossed poses. A little piece of myself that had been tucked away for safe keeping that I was happy to rediscover.
As we drove home I listened to Daemian happily chatter from his car seat about the adventures he had. The fog and the cold still loomed outside the doors of our cozy car but I felt like I had sunshine beaming from within me. To Jackie it may have seemed like a small thing, but her sunny disposition and "Just do it" attitude was infectious and changed my perspective on everything. The gloom that hung around us no longer held the power to damper my day. Instead of going home and curling myself into the fetal position, I was able to finish some projects around the house all the while happily making fun filled plans for the rest of the week. I was reminded that we all have the same 24 hours in our day, we all have struggles and we all need to sleep, but the difference between someone who's successful and someone who's not, is simply in their attitude.
Thanks Jackie!
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
-Helen Keller
That's a woman who knows how to get the best out of life. Lesson learned. 😊
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