The lurking blogger
(this post is brought to you by a guest blogger, Marlene...)
So, I'm one of those people who loves to read Beth's blog, and has even posted a couple of comments here and there, and in fact I've even been mentioned a few times. I'm sitting here recovering from hand surgery and I'm dictating this entry (to Beth, of course). Beth just had a breakthrough in asking people for stuff. She realized that she needed to expand her REI gift registry. I explained to her how frustrating it is to go to a wedding registry and be limited to the $3.99 vegetable peeler and the $250 down duvet. Where you just sort of cave and end up buying a gift card (not that that's not an option at REI!). And so I kept asking her and expanding her thinking - "What else do you need? What else can you use?" Imagine that - we came up with a bunch of new stuff. And then there are the lurker shoppers, who buy something off the list and don't let Beth know, so it comes as a complete surprise when it shows up at her door. It's so cool. The best surprises are the ones you don't know are coming.
I'm in amazement about this whole undertaking. I've done big things - I've ridden my bike across the country, but having done a 3 day Adventure Race last May, I am left speechless by having to do that for ten full days. I'm very amazed at what it's taking and what Beth is going through, and yet, somehow she still maintains a social life! (oh so important for a social animal like Beth!) And she isn't in any way overtraining and becoming irritable to the people around her (editors note: that depends who you ask!) I'm even amazed at Sheryl and Jonathan who are donated two weeks of their vacation time to volunteer at PQ. It doesn't seem like too much of a vacation to me. Of course, I'm about to ride my bicycle across the country again, and many people would question that as a vacation, so who am I to say?
I had an interesting breakthrough that might make a difference to people who might take on huge things like this. In regards to my hand surgery, I've already had my hand in a cast for six weeks because of a broken wrist (motorcycle accident). And the bone shifted just enough that it severed a tendon (but only after 5 weeks, of course. Just when I was getting excited about having my hand back). Now I have to have my hand in a cast for another six weeks (although I am training through the whole thing) for quite some time, it was occurring for me as going back to prison, since I had just gotten use back of my right hand (and of course, I'm right handed) and now I'm losing it again. But I got some coaching from a good friend who showed me that, yes, it's painful, and yes, it's inconvenient, and he wasn't minimizing that. But there is a difference between those things and suffering about it, and I had collapsed those two things together. Once I could separate those two things, this whole situation could be a pain in the ass but I didn't have to suffer over if I didn't choose to. Which goes back to the whole training and racing thing. A lot of endurance people train to see how much we can suffer. And that maybe it's possible to have a different context. I think the big difference is that it's physical suffering, versus mental suffering. But sometimes in the other areas of our life we collapse those two together, don't we?!
I will look forward to posting again - this was fun!
So, I'm one of those people who loves to read Beth's blog, and has even posted a couple of comments here and there, and in fact I've even been mentioned a few times. I'm sitting here recovering from hand surgery and I'm dictating this entry (to Beth, of course). Beth just had a breakthrough in asking people for stuff. She realized that she needed to expand her REI gift registry. I explained to her how frustrating it is to go to a wedding registry and be limited to the $3.99 vegetable peeler and the $250 down duvet. Where you just sort of cave and end up buying a gift card (not that that's not an option at REI!). And so I kept asking her and expanding her thinking - "What else do you need? What else can you use?" Imagine that - we came up with a bunch of new stuff. And then there are the lurker shoppers, who buy something off the list and don't let Beth know, so it comes as a complete surprise when it shows up at her door. It's so cool. The best surprises are the ones you don't know are coming.
I'm in amazement about this whole undertaking. I've done big things - I've ridden my bike across the country, but having done a 3 day Adventure Race last May, I am left speechless by having to do that for ten full days. I'm very amazed at what it's taking and what Beth is going through, and yet, somehow she still maintains a social life! (oh so important for a social animal like Beth!) And she isn't in any way overtraining and becoming irritable to the people around her (editors note: that depends who you ask!) I'm even amazed at Sheryl and Jonathan who are donated two weeks of their vacation time to volunteer at PQ. It doesn't seem like too much of a vacation to me. Of course, I'm about to ride my bicycle across the country again, and many people would question that as a vacation, so who am I to say?
I had an interesting breakthrough that might make a difference to people who might take on huge things like this. In regards to my hand surgery, I've already had my hand in a cast for six weeks because of a broken wrist (motorcycle accident). And the bone shifted just enough that it severed a tendon (but only after 5 weeks, of course. Just when I was getting excited about having my hand back). Now I have to have my hand in a cast for another six weeks (although I am training through the whole thing) for quite some time, it was occurring for me as going back to prison, since I had just gotten use back of my right hand (and of course, I'm right handed) and now I'm losing it again. But I got some coaching from a good friend who showed me that, yes, it's painful, and yes, it's inconvenient, and he wasn't minimizing that. But there is a difference between those things and suffering about it, and I had collapsed those two things together. Once I could separate those two things, this whole situation could be a pain in the ass but I didn't have to suffer over if I didn't choose to. Which goes back to the whole training and racing thing. A lot of endurance people train to see how much we can suffer. And that maybe it's possible to have a different context. I think the big difference is that it's physical suffering, versus mental suffering. But sometimes in the other areas of our life we collapse those two together, don't we?!
I will look forward to posting again - this was fun!
posted by little b @ 8:52 p.m.
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