You may be asking yourself where I have been with a little gap in posting. Well....it happened. I rang in 2024 with two significant events. First, this is the first year I dove into without my parents as my mom died some years back, and my father tragically passed of COVID in October. All I have remaining for parental guidance is a kind and loving stepmom who, two months after the death of my father, was diagnosed with breast cancer. As if that were not enough, I spent my New Years shivering and coughing, barely able to move, sick with a third round of COVID. With that, it brought back all of the side effects of my two previous infections, higher blood pressure, racing heart and even a round of shingles. To be honest, it felt a bit like that elephant in the room, as I refer to my journey to good health, no longer had the small bites I had taken out of it in the months leading in, rather it had actually grown in size become quite ferocious and now seemingly harder to take on than ever.
During my five day forced pause on life, I found myself looking around my room. The reality? Working three jobs over the last 15 months while managing a household with three teenagers still at home, has my closets overflowing with clothes that need to be gone through and donated. The dust has built up, and I can see piles of mail and documents that all need to be gone through and organized. In short, my life has grown up around me and instead of a safe space, had enough clutter it felt like prison walls instead. My mind began to race from my COVID riddled bed on how I was going to beat back this overgrowth of life and find some semblance of balance. In the midst of my angst, I ran across a posting for a Gladys Knight tour. How old was she anyway? She's touring? and, there it was, "Midnight Train to Georgia" became my COVID earworm.
L.A. proved too much for the man
(Too much for the man, he couldn't make it)
So he's leaving a life he's come to know, ooh
(He said he's going)
I think if the COVID pause taught me anything, maybe three jobs, one of which has taken me to the west coast for ten 6-8 day work stretches in the last six months, with two other jobs at home just may too much for this woman to balance with the rest of life.
He's leaving
(Leaving)
On that midnight train to Georgia, yeah
(Leaving on the midnight train)
Said he's going back
(Going back to find)
To a simpler place and time, oh yes he is
Just maybe it was time for me to catch my own proverbial midnight train to Georgia and go back to the beginning to see what I could find. My health journey began 8 years ago as I attacked my decades of obesity and learned to eat well and workout with a no holds barred, take no prisoners great white shark approach. From there came a rapidly growing support group of like minded individuals and we grew together over time smashing our goals, taking on Spartan Races and marathons until COVID shut the world down. Suddenly, there were no more group outings, no more racing, no more group workouts or any of the things my group relied on for motivation. That simple interplay between the presence of people and tangible achievements was suddenly just gone and we were left to fend for ourselves. Personally, I have kept with healthy eating but have had to switch to more modified exercise to adjust to my new post-COVID self, but the group at large has been much quieter with fewer and fewer victory posts, and far less chatter which left me wondering how everyone was actually doing emerging from the pandemic. In those moments when I was pondering it all, ironically I was contacted by a friend who was with my original motivational group. She was struggling, was I still in the motivation business? Can I help her again?
In my never ending quest to put good into the world as promised to my father on his death bed in October, I agreed immediately. It occurred to me this is how my journey began all those years ago, simple support and motivation with a safe space to share struggles. It was simple formula of a common experience with a circle of amazing people walking the same walk, celebrating their victories and confiding their struggles for the greater good. So, I got back to basics and began to share with her my new found approach to wellness, taking it all in small pieces, one little goal at a time, one victory at a time. I shared my COVID struggles and health impacts and suddenly there I was, smack dab in the middle of my personal Georgia, where it all began.
It was then I took the leap and posted the health journey my friend and I were going to walk together and posted it to the group at large. Much to my surprise, many of the original members emerged, all with one common theme,"I'm in a funk. Can you help me?" It turns out the silence amongst the group was not lack of interest, and to answer my own question, people were not ok. In fact, there seemed to be a general funk brought on by a rather nasty isolation monster known by COVID. It was in this space that the notion of Elephant Bites 2024 began. Today, on launch day for the program, I am grateful for the forced pause in my life to slow me down enough to know that sometimes life as we know it just doesn't work and you have to take the leap and load up your own midnight train and head back to the proverbial Georgia. I am discovering, in the presence of my old crew assembling on that train, somehow facing the year without my parents, while supporting my stepmom's cancer journey feels just a wee bit easier. It even seems as though my own elephant in the room just may be a bit smaller and maybe a little less ferocious than he seemed during the throws of my illness.
In the end, I did find out how old Gladys Knight was. She is 79. Seventy-nine years old and proclaimed "The Empress of Soul," still lighting up the stage sharing her variety of goodness with the world proving once again, no matter your age or circumstance, it's never too late to do what you love and achieve all of your wildest dreams. As to the clutter that was growing up around me? One small bag of declutter a day removed from my space has me feeling more in control and less like my surroundings were prison walls, and yes I am even working on a better work/life balance. So here's to 2024 and my Elephant Bites Crew! Let's tackle this thing known as good health encompassing body, mind and spirit together just like we did when we started, only this time less ferocious and instead, one bite at a time.
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