A woman much wiser than me once offered me that piece of advice. I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time (actually I don’t think I appreciated at all). Since then though, I have come to recognise how important it is when dealing with things I can’t change.
I wish there were more Saturday afternoons in my life. It’s my favourite time of the week, like most people I guess. Sitting in my garden, looking across the hills with a beer in my hand while the sun sets… I’m happy.
It was on one of these lovely afternoons when I thought, well… this is a good life. I realised that these little moments each day might be more important than those big moments once a year (or at least as important, because I’ll never really give those big ones up). I decided I would approach life differently: more in-the-moments, and less wishing for a moment at some future point, conditional to not working, or not being at home, or doing something adventurous. Conditional to being in peak fitness, if I’m totally honest.
After a couple of years of my knee disappointing me, I realised it was time to start planning for things that would be great regardless of whether I was fit. Things that could happen every day at home, if I chose it. It wasn’t about giving in, or stopping treatment, or accepting that when you get older, your health suffers. Pfft. It absolutely was not that.
Instead, it was changing my appreciation of what happens around me, and making an effort each day. I will not die if I can never climb a mountain again, so it was time to stop having tantrums and appreciate what I can do. Which, by the way, is still plenty. It’s a work in progress, but it’s liberating when I get it right.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, it’s almost sunset. Time for a beer.
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