Giving up & letting go.
Perfectionists, and particularly me, don’t like to hear those two defeatist phrases. They defeat the point of ever striving for something.
But sometimes it can actually be for the better; sometimes letting yourself forget the restrictions you put upon yourself is what is necessary.
And sometimes the best is just to let things happen, forgive and forget, as it were.
Everyone and everything comes and goes, like the ebb and flow of the sea along a coastline.
…
I woke up this morning with nothing on me. I do not mean actually, of course. I had nothing holding me back or down. The weight lifted. I can only attribute that to the past several days during which I have had to deal with the doctor’s orders not to run for a few weeks due to shin splints and/or hairline fractures in my shins that have been plaguing me with pain. For me, it had become just another fact of life; I cannot remember a time without my “leg aches.” I simply refused to give up my love of running, even for a little while. But what I had not realized is that my love had also become a shackle, a goal I had placed upon myself and had to be achieved in certain measures within certain times. So when I woke up this morning, the realization came to me that if I just let go, if I just gave up, just for a little while, that with hopeful healing my love of running would evolve into something more endurable regardless of whether the pain stays or goes. In the end, I hope that the next few weeks will not be in vain; I hope that despite the outcome physically, I will be able to rejoin the ranks of the running and do so without restraint, without weight.
…
So give up, and let go, but only every once in a while. ;)
