Workarounds are Our Friends

I love that the days are getting longer and it's staying light a little later. My dogs don't seem to get quite as much exercise in the winter because they depend on me to walk them. But it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home during those deep winter months and I don't like walking them in the dark. I hear packs of howling coyotes nearby, and bobcats are lurking around and my little cockers look like a tasty dinners for all of them. So we have to do workarounds to keep them healthy. We play ball and frisbee in the backyard during the week and do long walks on the weekend during daylight hours, so we've made it work. They do get a little leaner though in the summer!

Life doesn't always arrange itself to our liking, does it? Stuff happens, life changes and boom - suddenly we haven't gotten any exercise in a week, two weeks and we're feeling it. So workarounds need to be part of our lives, too. Compare the oak tree to the palm tree. In a big storm, there are an awful lot of uprooted oaks, but those palms bend and twist and mostly stay put, bobbing back up again when it's all over. We have to be palms. Be flexible. Keep living!

My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer six years ago and had his left lung removed shortly after that. We always used to walk before that, but after surgery he wasn't so sure. But we started back anyway. At first just to the end of our short cul de sac, then around the corner; then father. Early on we visited our property up in the mountains and I had to literally pull him up the hill from the lake. Just no breath at that altitude. But at home we kept walking, month after month.

Six months after our first trip to the mountains following surgery and many walks later, we had been down at the lake and we headed back up the hill. Les went first and I hung back watching. He just trucked up that hill with his one lung, no help from me and didn't even notice he did it. I ran up jumping up and down. " Do you know what you just did! Yippee!" He was thrilled.

He knew he had to get strength and breath back. He did what he needed to do, one little step at a time to get his life back. He's a survivor. He's had two more cancer surgeries and he just keeps chugging along doing what it takes to regain his health each time. I'm very proud of him. He's beat the odds. It's all gravy from here.

Do what it takes. Little steps count. Don't stop. Just work around the problem.