No Time for Slowing Down? Sometimes Life Has Different Plans

Slowing down is sometimes about giving in.

After slowing down for a stretch of resting, reflecting, regenerating, and recovering during the last week of 2022, my New Year has had a bit of a rough start.

Beginning somewhere around December 29^th or 30^th, nature determined that I needed even more “down time.” And she didn’t give me a say in how to accomplish the additional down time either.

C’mon, I took some time off. Let me be.

You may remember that in my last post of 2022, I talked about the merits of taking the last week of the year off. To give yourself some well-deserved down time. After following my own advice and doing just that, here’s the rest of the story…

You know how when you look at your arm or leg and notice a big, old, nasty black and blue bruise—and you have no earthly memory of getting hit or bumping into anything? Not anything that would have caused that, anyway.

So, the next time any possible bruise-causing event like bumping into that frickin coffee table again, you concentrate on it with all your will so this time you’ll remember. I had a moment like that about four weeks ago.

Although, this time just wasn’t about getting a bruise.

I think I mentioned before that Santa Fe really leans into celebrating the holidays. It’s a big deal and there’s literally something for everyone. And we did a lot of those somethings.

With COVID surging again, we were careful and donned our masks when we were inside at a performance, in a crowded store, or in any semblance of a crowd for that matter. Like most of us though, I’m soooo ready to never have to wear a mask again.

But I will.

And this isn’t a plug for masks or a rant against them. This post is about being able to slow down, and we’ll get to that in a minute…

Sometimes you have a say in the matter, and sometimes you don’t.

Here’s the thing, though… It’s where the mystery bruise enters in. I have a distinct memory that’s mostly faded of any specifics. One day, at one event or outing, I clearly remember saying to myself, “I’m going to pay for that.”

Meaning this—being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, without having taken the proper precautions in that moment—I knew I had been exposed to something. Thank you coughing person who should have been at home. Crap. Now what?

If there’s a message, it’s to be mindful when you choose to drop your guard.

We’ve all been stuck on that elevator where the person hiding in the corner starts coughing and hacking. And you can only hold your breath for so long, right? It’s hard to prevent those situations. It’s the other times when we do have tradeoffs to consider.

So, which of the current COVID-Flu-RSV trifecta would I come down with? That’s the question I remember asking myself.

This isn’t a bid for sympathy—it’s not about that.

COVID test—NEGATIVE. COVID test #2—NEGATIVE. Flu—NEGATIVE. Well, that leaves RSV which quickly became full blown bronchitis. Not fun. Did you know it’s possible to cough your lungs inside out? I didn’t either. Okay, it only felt like that at times.

Today makes three weeks and I’m finally on the downhill side. Still having those random coughing fits, but they’re getting better. I’m finally on the mend. Thanks.

We all have the same number of hours every day. That part is the given.

The frustration comes when we feel like our time is taken from us by one thing or another.

Hey, I had taken my week of rest and relaxation—I was ready to launch into the New Year (sans resolutions, mind you). But life had other plans, so after some unsuccessful hoping and resisting, I did my best to adjust.

I drank lots of fluids and took lots of naps. I’m sure both did me good. In addition to feeling crappy and having my plans and good intentions interrupted, I found my way to adapt. I knew I was in for a long stretch of a bumpy trail.

I’m not sure I have any wisdom to share…

Unless it’s that when we face those forced pauses in life, know that it doesn’t help much to resist or fight back.

For most of us, we find interruptions like these hard. The difficulty in slowing down when you need to slow down is that incessant feeling that we need to be busy doing something. Some productive something.

I found this post, “Steal the time from comfort” by Seth Godin that pretty well sums it up…

Everyone gets the same 24 hours. Reset every day, a fresh start. Some of us are privileged enough to have the choice on how to spend some of that time. We can feel busy, but the busy-ness is largely a choice, a series of decisions we’ve made over the years about the things we choose to do but have come to believe we ‘have’ to do.”

The best thing we can do is give ourselves a break, rest, drink plenty of fluids, and take lots of naps. Then we’ll be able to get back to feeling busy enough soon enough.

Be untucked, my friend.

p.s. Know someone who’s been involuntarily down for the count? Maybe share this post with them. Thanks…

John Maneth says

January 21, 2023 at 12:08 pm

Life put a scare into me about slowing down. My mother passed away from complications with dementia, approximately 2 years ago, after a 7-8 years slow downhill slide. And my sister that was one year older than me, passed away from complications from dementia, approximately 3 years ago, after a rather sudden 4 year downhill slide.
This was been present in the back of my mind, with quick forays to the from of my mind, since my mom passed. My primary care physician gave me a quick, 6 part test in her office. 5 tests were good, 1 part not so good. She referred me to KU Med Memory Care, in KC, for an intermediate test. I scored 35-38. I felt pretty good about that score, but my reviewer stated the three I missed were the same 3 I had missed in GB. She ask if the had taken the test 5 years earlier, would it have been better? I said yes it would have.
She recommended a comprehensive test, with an MRI. That deflated me.
Several weeks later, my comprehensive test started with a verbal list of 12 words, that I should repeat back in any order. I got 6-7, probably. She repeated the list again, and I got 7-8, probably. She repeated the lust again, and I got again thought I got 7-8z
The second part we numbers that I had to repeat in exact order, starting with 2 digits twice, the three digits twice, then four digits twice, up to 10 digit numbers.
Then came the easier tests, then some verbal math problems with 2-3 digit numbers. Just when I was feeling better about my self, she asks, remember our first sets of words? I’d like you to repeat as many of those back as you can.
My subconscious brain had been working on that list, and realized there were 4 animals, 4 gemstones, 4 types of shelters, in that list. So I repeated the list back, broken into types. Then she used the list, with additional words, and I had to tell her which words were in the original list or not.
When she left the room, I was pretty bummed, with how I’d answered.

The doctor I’d initially met with came back in, and ask how I thought I did. I explained some pretty good, some kinda poor. He shook his head and said he had just glanced at my tests, and didn’t think I had done poor, which made me feel a bit better.

Forward two weeks snd one brain MRI later, the neurologist came in, and met with Sandy snd I. He started off by saying each time I repeated the word back I got more, so my brain was still learning, and that at the end of the test, I had figured it out, and got I’ll the words correct. He said my brain was still learning. He explained the rest of the test, and said that for my age, my health, my education, my life experienced, I was perfectly normal !
And my MRI looked fine as well.
Life had worried me, and slowed me down, for several weeks, but I am now back to as normal as I can be, with a great weight lifted from my shoulders.
Life is good Jeff.

Comments

John Maneth says

January 21, 2023 at 12:08 pm

Life put a scare into me about slowing down. My mother passed away from complications with dementia, approximately 2 years ago, after a 7-8 years slow downhill slide. And my sister that was one year older than me, passed away from complications from dementia, approximately 3 years ago, after a rather sudden 4 year downhill slide.
This was been present in the back of my mind, with quick forays to the from of my mind, since my mom passed. My primary care physician gave me a quick, 6 part test in her office. 5 tests were good, 1 part not so good. She referred me to KU Med Memory Care, in KC, for an intermediate test. I scored 35-38. I felt pretty good about that score, but my reviewer stated the three I missed were the same 3 I had missed in GB. She ask if the had taken the test 5 years earlier, would it have been better? I said yes it would have.
She recommended a comprehensive test, with an MRI. That deflated me.
Several weeks later, my comprehensive test started with a verbal list of 12 words, that I should repeat back in any order. I got 6-7, probably. She repeated the list again, and I got 7-8, probably. She repeated the lust again, and I got again thought I got 7-8z
The second part we numbers that I had to repeat in exact order, starting with 2 digits twice, the three digits twice, then four digits twice, up to 10 digit numbers.
Then came the easier tests, then some verbal math problems with 2-3 digit numbers. Just when I was feeling better about my self, she asks, remember our first sets of words? I’d like you to repeat as many of those back as you can.
My subconscious brain had been working on that list, and realized there were 4 animals, 4 gemstones, 4 types of shelters, in that list. So I repeated the list back, broken into types. Then she used the list, with additional words, and I had to tell her which words were in the original list or not.
When she left the room, I was pretty bummed, with how I’d answered.

The doctor I’d initially met with came back in, and ask how I thought I did. I explained some pretty good, some kinda poor. He shook his head and said he had just glanced at my tests, and didn’t think I had done poor, which made me feel a bit better.

Forward two weeks snd one brain MRI later, the neurologist came in, and met with Sandy snd I. He started off by saying each time I repeated the word back I got more, so my brain was still learning, and that at the end of the test, I had figured it out, and got I’ll the words correct. He said my brain was still learning. He explained the rest of the test, and said that for my age, my health, my education, my life experienced, I was perfectly normal !
And my MRI looked fine as well.
Life had worried me, and slowed me down, for several weeks, but I am now back to as normal as I can be, with a great weight lifted from my shoulders.
Life is good Jeff.

- Jeff Meister says
  
  January 21, 2023 at 12:24 pm
  
  Yes, life IS good, John. Thanks for sharing your story. I could feel your journey through the tests and I’m glad they turned out well. It takes us a long time to realize we should enjoy the in-betweens and shouldn’t delay the good parts. Have a great year, my friend.