Everything all at once? Remember ‘I can’

Do you ever have one of those days where suddenly everything becomes overwhelming? Everything seems to have happened all at once?

I’m there.

On Monday I went out for my ‘jogette’, I can’t really call it running as yet as I am still trying to persuade my lungs that they need to play their part in getting oxygen into my body rather than scrambling for very breath to the point of re-inhaling my own CO2 before the O2 has a chance to get past my nasal cavity.

Fortunately my running partner also has a Sports Massage qualification; I didn’t realise this until we reached the top of Caesar’s Camp & I commented that my calves felt a bit tight. 15 minutes of manipulation during which time John (at a social distance) stopped to see if we were OK & told us about his daily routine & a woman screeched to a halt on her bicycle to see if we were OK.

I thought everything was OK. The attempt at a more gentle run on Wednesday resulted in me on the open air cross trainer whilst my running partner did the running for us around the sports pitch. I then realised it was time for the self-help ‘I can sort this’ and onto YouTube to look for that part of the body that was giving me pain; how to strap it up and finally onto Amazon for some physio tape.

On Thursday I had to take our loyal & trusted dog, Misty, to the vet and it was a one way journey for her. She had a good life, an extraordinary life.

Misty enjoying the sunset

Misty came to us having been trained as a general search dog in the British Army. She served for 2 years in Afghanistan and was then retired from service. Fortunately we were living in Germany, close to the Military Working Dogs Regiment and we put our name on the long list of those who would give a retirement home to a military working dog.

She had her nuances, especially at the beginning. She wouldn’t let us touch her feet, she ran off constantly and woe betide anyone who came between her and a tennis ball!

It’s now Monday, a week on. My knee has the home-style physio strapping on it, propped up on the cross-bar of my desk. The cocktail of Ibuprofen & paracetamol will have to be replaced by a phone call to a professional medical just to make sure I don’t do any further damage.

There is an emptiness without our faithful friend.

Rather than feel sorry for myself I am going to take action. No, despite the pleas of the rest of my family, I am not going to rush out & buy a puppy. I am going to be more creative. I shall channel that energy into absorbing my energies into something where the process may seem monotonous but there will be an outcome. A positive outcome.

Life, fate, God sends us challenges that always seem to come all at once. But equally, we will never be tested beyond our abilities. The trouble is that sometimes, when it all happens at once, we lose faith in our abilities; we need to learn to trust in them. To know that ‘I can’ means exactly that.