A Light Through the Darkness

It’s my birthday today.  Today is the last time I will celebrate a birthday in my 30s – next year is the big 4-0.  I was talking to my new doctor on Thursday and you know, I don’t FEEL like I’m staring 40 in the face.  I don’t even feel 30.  I look at myself, and I don’t always recognize the person staring back at me, because to me, I’m still just fresh out of college.  Or worse, still IN college.  I feel like I should know things that I don’t.  I feel that I’m still learning.

And maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe that’s why, in spite of a truly horrific weekend eating-wise, I’m still looking forward to my 5k race next Saturday.  I have yet to run 5k outside.  This will probably be my first time.  I haven’t looked at the course since, um, October, when I signed up for it.  But I’m still going to do it.

Happy Birthday to me.

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.

And yet, I fee very calm.  Not crazy, just in a zen kind of mood.  I DO have a lot to do.  And I’m confident I can do it.

I’ve been gluten-free now for almost two months, and I can feel differences that I didn’t realize I would.  Things are clearer –  like a fog has lifted.  I’m not even really missing much, except bread.  I need to find a good bread recipe that doesn’t leave me chewing forever.  But I’m working on it – it’s a work in progress, just like a story.

I’m running too – I ran twice last week, and realized that I truly need to lose a bit more weight before I run on the track again.  My knees aren’t hurting, exactly, but I’m not doing them any favors by pounding on them with the track with a 285 lb body.  So for the remainder of this pass through the Couch to 5K program (I’m on Week 2, Day 2 for Monday), I’ll be running on the treadmill, working on dropping some weight.  Once I’m running the full 5K on the treadmill, I’ll switch back to the track.  April 6 is my deadline – that’s the Todd’s Trot 5k run that I’m doing for my birthday.  The goal is to run the entire thing.  Even if I finish 2 hours after everyone else.  I WILL run it!

I’m feeling more focused on my writing too.  I’ve shelved my pirate story for a while – it’s not working, and I’m thinking I’m going at it the wrong way.  So it goes back into the treasure chest to marinate, and I’m working on my ghosthunters again.  Although they’ve made a change too, which I like.  And I’m plugging along on my edits – hoping to have them out the door by the end of the month as well.

I’m reading again too.  I’m not really going to quantify, but I’m reading two interesting books right now.  One is called The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Dr. Atul Gawande.  It’s about how to use a checklist to make sure you are doing everything you need to.  It’s fascinating – he’s a surgeon, so most of his examples are medical-related, but he relates it to the real world.  I’m engrossed.

The other book I’m reading is The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly.  Not normally my type of book, but Mom let me borrow it, and I’m loving how she’s weaving the tale of a modern day woman trying to find her way in life with letters from the characters in Little Women (who are this woman’s ancestors).  It’s a good reminder to read outside my genre.  I’m going to have to find some more like this.

This got longer than I thought it would, so I’ll put my to-do list on another page.  I do still have a list, after all!

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.