Before I get on with the story you need to know three things:
1.) I have a nine year old niece, Lenne, - the up and coming queen of gymnastics. According to my parents this girl is made of jello. If you believe the proud grandparents this girl can put the most talented member of Cirque du Soleil to shame.
2.) We currently live 9ooo km apart from each other, my niece, my parents and I.
Thanks to modern communication we stay in touch with random phone calls full of sweet nothingness.
If my niece is the princess of gym apparatus, my mom is the undefeated queen of random jibber jabber!
3.) There are two items on my bucket list I am horrified to do! That's why they are on the list; I strategically postponed these two actions successfully for 40 years. One of them is to do a back dive into the pool!
"What, that's it?"
Easy for you to say! We all have our own personal fears and shortcomings to overcome - and the back dive is mine!
Last week, out of the blue, I decided to take the plunge- literally. Don't ask me why, I just wanted to do it ! Who am I to encourage, motivate and inspire to Just do it if I am not doing it myself?
A plain and simple, straight backwards back dive is all I ever wanted to complete and experience since I am about 8 years old!
Why haven't I done it?
I am afraid! I am afraid to break my back and to hit my head somewhere. I am afraid of not being flexible enough. Letting go, falling backwards into the big unknown freaks me out! Until last Tuesday that is!
Here is the abbreviated version of how it went: Y E S, I did it! HURRAH - I let myself go - and survived!
As you can read, this back dive is a pretty huge accomplishment in my life! For good measure I did the dive six times; to make sure I am not a one-hit-diver!
A few days later our long distance line was busy with my mom's desperate attempt to figure out her yearly pre- Christmas- dilemma:
What can she send whom and how for the holy season? In between my non -helpful suggestions (just send some sweets, we have everything) my mother kept on asking:
"So tell me, what is new?"
Regardless of how many times I answer this question in general, she keeps on asking the same thing, over and over again; as if she is hoping something spectacular is going to happen while she is on the line!
I don't know if my parents ever knew about this personal absession of mine. Regardless, I told them. I told them about my personal victory, about how I conquered my fear diving backwards into a pool!
After I finished with "I did it!" there was nothing, just (stunned????) silence on their end!
This was mom's reaction to one of my most courageous, personal challenges so far:
"You should see what Lenne can do! It is unbelievable how this girl can bend herself into a pretzel!"
Isn't it funny?
Some things mean the world to you- but they mean little or nothing to others; personal or business accomplishments mean nothing if we brag about them to the wrong audience!
No comments:
Post a Comment