Life's Rich Pageant ...

I absolutely love that phrase, and have been repeating it a lot lately. What "life's rich pageant" refers to is that you must take the good with the bad... that you cannot separate the bad experiences as they are all part of the tapestry of a full life.

And a very full life I definitely have! So full, often, that I find myself scrambling to keep up, catch up. These past few weeks are a great example of that. Over 3 weekends I ...

completed The Spartan Death Race, 

coached my daughter in her first international wrestling tournament,

 and took my son to an electronic music festival 700 miles away. 

Each of these events was its own incredible life experience. I am MASSIVELY fortunate to be able to do things like these!

The flip-side is that I am feeling WAY behind on some important stuff today. I have a whole bunch of thank you notes I want to send to people who generously supported POGO as my Death Race charity. I have made dozens of calls on real estate business (all of which was kept alive remotely through the miracle that is Google - I love my Android!!). A handful of coaching/hypnosis clients have been patiently waiting to book appointments this week. This crunch is all exacerbated by the fact that I have taken on hosting a cable TV program covering the local arts scene - and we are doing full day shoots this Wednesday and Thursday (and then I am being interviewed for TV Friday afternoon regarding The Death Race).

There is even some "big stuff" that has slipped through the cracks ... like filing my taxes on time. What should have been a spring project and HAD TO BE a June project has now become a July project, along with a hefty penalty from Revenue Canada.

But, it is said that The Universe does not ever give you a challenge without also giving you the tools to handle it. It even seems to help out in strange ways ... like this one. Before The Death Race, I was warned that I had likely developed stress fractures in both feet (at the base of the 5th metatarsals). I opted to not have x-rays done as I was racing anyway. My feet managed to hold up through the race, and I thought I may have dodged a bullet. Especially since I actually felt surprisingly fine when I got back home. Sure my feet were completely numb and my ankles were very swollen, but I was getting around ok. That is until the feeling started coming back - wow wow OW! The numbness is caused by "tarsal tunnel syndrome" - an internal swelling that pinches off key nerves. Once I could feel my feet I was in trouble. My plantar faciitis is back in full force. I lost a toenail completely. My ankles are very weak and sprained. And I am going for x-rays tomorrow morning for the stress fractures. Now, remember, this paragraph started out declaring that this is somehow a blessing - and it is. I simply CANNOT run, or go to the gym, for the next month. (Technically, I have been told to not even walk - though dancing all weekend at Camp Bisco was never expressly forbidden!) So, this means lots of time suddenly available for all of this other important stuff!!!

I also "owe" two fairly significant blog posts ... my full recounting of The Death Race and the extraordinary insights it afforded me, and an essay on taking a twelve year old to a 3-day electronic music festival (a truly unique life experience) ... both coming soon!

Promises, promises ;)