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| Earth’s ellispsoid corkscrew courtesy of vSauce |
We are taught that the orbit of the Earth as it revolves around the sun is an ellipse. Sort of a flat oval. But that’s actually incorrect. Since the sun is moving, the path of the Earth is more like a corkscrew spiraling around the sun like an old fashioned telephone cord. We feel like it’s cyclical, but it is actually progressing through space.
We are also inclined to see cycles. As I grow older, I like to say “the more things change, the more they stay the same…” That’s a nice way of saying that life and patterns are cyclical. Repeating. Friendships come and go. The seasons come and go. Children grow into adults. Life carries on in in its inevitable patterns and cycles. The older one gets, the more recognizable and predictable these patterns become.
Except they aren’t repetitions. Different friends come and go in different ways. Each winter has its own challenges, each spring its own newness. Different children take different paths into adulthood. Life progresses with cycles and patterns, but also differences. Most important, it progresses.
Recently, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon again. It will be my third, and I’m looking forward to it with anticipation. My last marathon was a trainwreck. I crossed the finish line suffering from hyponatremia (not enough salt) and heat exhaustion. I was in rough shape an contracted the flu a few weeks later. I spent most of November and December in and out of a fever. I made the decision to not run the 2018 marathon – I figured I needed a break. Besides, life is cyclical right? The opportunity would come back around.
Unfortunately, not training for an entire year took its toll. I gained 30 pounds of red wine, pasta, and ice cream. I lost all of the conditioning and strength that I had in 2017. By October, I was a mess: overweight, not active, and beginning to fall apart. My body began to rebel by picking random parts of my face and making them swell up. It wasn’t an allergic reaction – technically it was idiopathic angioedema. A few times it was my bottom lip. Most recently it was my tongue. I was on a business trip to Charlotte, and my tongue swelled up. Sitting in Urgent Care, hundreds of miles from my family in a Benadryl haze, I decided to get my shit together.
This time, like the earth progressing in its corkscrew, I wouldn’t just circle back around to my starting point. I’d move forward. I committed to lose the weight (I’ve lost 12 of the 30 so far). I changed my diet (more on that later). And I started running again. I set goals for myself with rewards. Each time I trained for the marathon in the past I started out with a few extra pounds and used the training to lose weight. This time, I would lose the weight before March, and then do the full training.
Also, I called my doctor and made an appointment. Can’t mess around at my age.
So I’m starting the process again, but different this time. I’m circling but also progressing – moving forward. In a corkscrew, not a circle.