I believe any goal worth pursuing is found at the bottom of a staircase. If I'm lucky, there's a hand rail. But most of these staircases have a lot of steps before the bottom comes in sight. And most of the time, there are a lot more steps than I swear I saw when I first started down! But I have to say, thank you God for steps. If I had to just leap into the air and take the massive hit to my joints that landing at the bottom would deliver... I'd say pish posh, I don't need goals.
As word pictures go, Escher comes to mind when I think how many staircases I am walking down at any given time. I try to keep them to a handful but life keeps moving and time flies and sometimes you can't be the master of what you must do. This is one of the reasons I never had any Escher posters on my wall in college. But I still say, thank you God for steps.
And if you are young enough not to have joint twinges going downstairs, then think of your staircase as going up instead of down. Direction doesn't matter, as long as you keep moving. See? Escher creeps me out.
I am starting Atkins in a few weeks. I've had good success with low carb diets in the past but always managed to let life events disrupt my progress. You know how some people can just put their head down and barrel through to any goal? Never been my gift. I have a friend like that, curse her (love you Danielle!). No, I am a circle back around and keep trying for the umpteenth time kind of person. Achieving anything has never been easy for me. Sometimes you have to focus on the fact that you keep trying and not let all those people with trophy walls get you down.
But back to that staircase. The distance to the bottom--I can't even see that far. I have to get rid of half my body weight, at least, to get to a reasonable weight for my diminutive height. I have never been able to see to the bottom of *that* staircase. And after you've been going down and down and down and the view hasn't changed all that much, you start to discount things like hand rails (support systems, friends and cheerleaders who you can lean on when you need to). I have to trust that at least one of my hand rails will poke me if I take her for granted too much (love you Patricia!). But my favorite and most immediately present support has four legs, is smaller than the length of my arm, and has no clue that she supports anything. Love you, Margot!
My beloved kitty has metaphorical staircases of her own. She still runs like a bat out of hell for the dark dustiness that is under my bed whenever there's thunder or if rain comes down harder than a gentle patter. But there are times: when I am scritching under her chin and a distant rumble of thunder makes one ear twitch but she stays next to me; or when the rain wakes me up with its fierceness and she is snoring softly into my shoulder, oblivious. These are just some of the times when it hits me how much I am her hand rail. I love that. If tiny frail little trembling girl can put her trust in me and take a step down, surely I can skip down a few steps of my own without complaint.
Being single (and wistfully miserable in such a state), I wonder how much courage children impart to their wondering parents. Can we nurture and teach them to walk down their own staircases without gaining help on our own journey? Isn't that part of the miracle that when we think about it, makes up for all the difficult and heart-rending parts?
Raise your glasses, my friends. Salute staircases, steps, and hand rails today. And whether your kids are furry, have two legs or four, never forget to count them as miracles, to be treasured.
Even if they've re-discovered their ball track addiction..
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