Yet another nudge from the universe that life and time wait for no-one. A week ago my London ‘husband’ called from Greece, where he was celebrating his partner’s birthday. An old high school friend had some bad news from his oncologist.
The cancer is back in his spine, pelvis and liver. They’ve stopped treatment and have given him a clock of ‘sometime around fall.’ That’s a mere 3 months away. He’s scared.
He isn’t even 40 with a 7 mth old daughter and 3 year old son whom he adores! They won’t remember him.
Despite all the faith in existence and the wonders of modern medicine, they cannot fix this. Mykal is taking it badly; he and Adrian are close. What do you say? Which words could possibly make this less devastating?!
While we all have ‘the rest of our lives ahead of us’, there’s no way of knowing how long ‘the rest’ is. 5 minutes. 5 years. 5 decades. Who knows?
If you sit down and give some serious thought to what you want out of life, the dream if you will, it’s very easy to get daunted and think you’ll never get it. Whether it’s the 30 lbs you need to lose, the supermodel body, the car, house, dream job; whatever IT is for you, you need to get after it.
You can tackle it balls to the wall or one step at a time. There’s no prescription for any of it. Just do something. Anything. ONE THING.
One disclaimer I’ll toss in here is that if you have more than 2 priorities, then you don’t have any. Decide which one is the most important for you with maybe a smaller one on the side and tackle it. I’ve opted for 20 lbs and relocating myself in the next 3 months. I’d like to see him again while there’s time.
This has significantly bumped up my clock on moving but I do my best living under pressure. The passport application went in last Saturday with a rush job on it. The boss is aware of my plan and he’s actually trying to make it happen for me from a job perspective. (Never underestimate people’s willingness to help you on your way.)
The visa app will go in within the next 3 weeks and from there it’s a roughly 3 week turnaround on a response. This means by the end of June I will have an answer on which way my life is going. It’s magic spreadsheet time, when I start finding homes for the stuff that won’t be shipped. This is happening. I’m going home!
That it took a terminally ill friend I haven’t seen in 25 years to make me pull my finger out of my arse is sad. I wish I was going home under happier circumstances. While it might sound trite and meaningless in the grand scheme, he has pushed me to LIVE; to finally get off my butt and make a change. I turn 40 1 month today. Holy shit.
While the visa work is happening in the background, there’s the business of gently getting my body back. I’ve had a cough I haven’t been able to shake for about 6 months now so I Googled things that cause mucous. Well…
Increased consumption of dairy (cheese is GOOD!), caffeine (yep!), sugar (yep because it goes in my caffeine), alcohol (scotch is delicious!), bread/gluten (yep, sammiches every day, sometimes twice a day) and eggs (I don’t have a problem with eggs.)
All of those things have increased since the end of last year so time to rein them in. Simply put, the coffees have to go because they will take some dairy and sugar with them. Scotch has been off the menu for a week and sammiches are down to every other day and no bread at home. My chest feels easier and I’m coughing a bit less.
Next is the small matter of shifting the poundage. I’ve cranked up my water intake and gone back to logging my stuff on myfitnesspal. It’s helpful seeing where the wasted calories are going. **SUGAR**
Unfortunately, a little over a week ago I asked my sister to show me how to make koeksisters, which is a traditional South African sweet and it takes a TON of sugar. We made the syrup last week and today is the dough and deep frying… the timing is not great given the mission I gave myself about 2 days after making the suggestion. But it’s family time and I’ve always wanted to learn how to make them so that’s what’s going down today. Moderation.
I’m in 3 fitbit challenges today so win, lose, shit or bust, I need to hit my 10k step goal. It might be in increments of 20 mins at a time, but I’ll meet it because it’s necessary.
You don’t need to tackle every goal in its entirety; break them down into bits. So what if it’s 20 minutes at a time, you’re still reaching the goal and that is what we’re aiming for. Getting to the finish line of the life we want to live.
I’ll cheer your corner all day long on the road to living your best life.
