Musings on a Mobile Life: Chicken or Egg?
Saturday – 7:00AM: I’m not the best at sitting still. Motion relaxes me. My seat of choice would be a long-chained swing rather than a shaded park bench, and I relish running or walking a beach to sitting in its soft sand. So which came first? A frenetic occasionally crazy life or the preference for non-static activities? Did I adapt or attract?
One of those pointless ponderings that will probably never show up with full punctuation. But I’m thinking about it anyway this morning as I tiptoe around slumbering teens, compelled to pause my day’s start until all are awake and fed. As a little girl, I remember the frustration of being the only one up on many a Saturday morning. Politeness (and Family Law) dictated that I allow my sisters (and in-house playmates) to sleep. Impatience, however, prodded me to repeatedly flush the toilet in the attached bathroom until one of them awoke to start the new day with me. I didn’t want to miss a minute. Bedtime was set; the only wiggle room on extending the day came in the morning.
In the spirit of sociability, I’ve learned to moderate my Energizer Bunny syndrome. I’ve learned to live with a few untraveled trails, roads and streams. And, sometimes the “Bunny” does wear down and need a recharge (She’s on the wise and witty side of 40 after all)… But the restorative powers of motion -of drawing in oxygen and elevating the heart rate, of interacting with one’s environment in a meaningful way – they seem essential. They grow a gratitude within me that makes even the occasional overflow of life a little sweeter.
