My daughter Lily is very tenacious. When she decides to do something, there is no stopping her. She learned how to ride a two-wheel bike when she was five because she wanted to. Wearing a helmet and kneepads, she taught herself how to rollerblade, because she wanted to. Ed and I don’t know where she got this tenacity, but it’s serving her well.Now she’s 8, and she’s learning how to knit. I expect that she will be wearing a scarf before the winter is over.
I haven’t been knitting this winter. Instead, I’ve been gaining weight. It must be all the hibernating I’ve been doing. And the nibbling. The peanut butter crust here; the piece of cheese there; the leftover Christmas chocolates late at night. I decided today I was going to walk. The sun is shining and the temperature is hovering at the freezing point. My goal was to walk my usual two miles, the miles I had mapped out when I was in training for a certain 39 mile walk.
From sump pumps streaming water to melting snowbanks, sidewalks in our neighborhood are covered with patches of ice. About halfway through my walk, I saw a big, slippery patch ahead. I decided to move to the street to avoid it. As I walked down a driveway, I didn’t notice a small patch of ice at the bottom of the concrete.
I. completely. wiped. out.
My foot slipped out from under me. My hip crashed to the ground, my shoulder bashed into the blacktop, and I was surprised that I had fallen down so suddenly and so completely. Like I was the Queen of the Trampoline, however, I bounced back up, brushed off my hands, and kept walking.
I contemplated going around the short way, heading for home. I shook out my hip and my shoulder, which felt pretty good, and decided to finish my walk.
I just turned 44, I’m overweight, and I’m going to feel that fall in the morning. But I know where Lily gets her tenacity.
From me.
