Limitations, Redefined.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Limitations. We all have them. I may not have as many as some, but I have plenty. And I will for life – thanks to a disease that makes my arteries tear with no advance notice. I’m not a super spontaneous person, so spontaneous dissections are not my thing.

I’ll start by admitting that my younger 20-something self took good health for granted. Like being healthy was a given. Health issues were for older folks. Strokes happened to people who didn’t eat well or exercise, who had clogged arteries from eating too much bacon and butter.

Well, fast forward to 32. Strokes do in fact happen to young, healthy, 32 year-old women. Who knew? Call me naive, but not me. (More on that all, later…)

Over the past six years, my limitations have become redefined. Do I have them? Yes, absolutely. In fact, there are some days they make me cry and lose precious sleep – and other days they make me angry and want a do-over. I’ve been through all the stages. A few rounds at least.

But then there are the days I forget all about them. Days like today.

Today, I got out in a kayak with my precious two-year-old son. The lake was like glass. So peaceful. He touched the water with his fingertips for the first time. Together we took in all the beauty around us. The stillness in the air. He leaned back on me and just breathed.

It may not have been the 10-mile ride (sometimes through downed trees and rapids) that I used to go on with my dad. And we may not have gotten a workout (although getting a two-year-old in and out of a kayak is a bit of one). But it proved to be an incredibly memorable experience – and a new one for us to build upon each time we’re “up north.”

Limitations are what we make of them. They can either control us and define us, or they can make us wake up and see that the beauty of life is truly in the little things.