You know the folks that say things like “this must be a sign” when they, say, see a crow and decide it’s the universe telling them that they should take up belly dancing? I’m not that guy.
Maybe I’d benefit from being a little more like “that guy.” My tendency is to overthink to the point near paralysis until I become the living embodiment of the adage “indecision is a decision.”
So in that vein, I’m wondering if the universe is trying to subtly kick me in the head afterall.
Let me ‘splain.
I did the Turkey Trot Thursday. I sincerely hate running, but moreover enjoy checking accomplishments off. The run was only 6 miles, so imagine my surprise when I ran under the colorful finish banner and stopped my GPS watch only to see that tracked me at 5.94 miles. Obviously, that’s not terribly far off of 6, so it was clear to me that I had just started to far forward or something. I ambled slowly on the Distelhorst, basking in sun and accomplishment as I stretched out my mad hamstrings.
It wasn’t until Brian ran past me saying “The finish line is down there,” that I had even a hint that I’d messed up. The banner I’d run under was the finish for the 2 mile run. I laughed the remainder of the .06 miles I had just completely failed to notice. The re-telling makes me laugh at myself still and I thought this being just a funny story was enough.
But nooooooo,…
For the last two semesters I have been taking classes at Shasta College. I feel like an absolute douche being that old student with the master’s degree chiming in on group discussion time, but I have genuinely enjoyed learning about biology, nutrition and now kinesiology. I wrapped up the last round of work on the kinesiology class, added my text book to the stack of Goodwill donations, and went on about my business. This weekend I hopped online to see how my grade turned out only to learn that the CLASS ISN’T OVER! There’s a handful of assignments left to do.
In the course of just a couple days, I had two glaring examples of thinking that things were done when they very clearly weren’t.
I’m a person who likes to have things done. Clearly defined starts and stops are my friend. And when I say clearly, I mean “why in the actual fuck was there a finish banner at the not-finish?!” A list of check boxes next to tasks for me to do that is all complete warms my soul. I like to climb mountains because you know that you’re done when there’s no more “up” to go. Bikini competitions have a very clear end date and are the reason I can strictly adhere to a precise diet. Because of these tendencies, it’s unsettling that stopped short on 2 tasks.
I told gym folks about this and Troy in his metaphysical-self way told me that there’s a message for me to take from this. If that’s the case, I’m not really sure what it is.
Maybe it’s telling me that there’s crap I started that I need to circle back to (I mean, American Kenpo second degree brown belt is SOOOOO close to black belt).
Maybe it’s a humbling reminder that some things don’t have a finish. Whether I think I can put a check box next to them or not is irrelevant to their done-ness. They just are.
Or maybe it just means I’m eating so much sugar I can’t concentrate.
At any rate, I hope my unfinishing things is finished and I’ll start that trend immediately by finishing….
(see, it’s funny because it’s like I didn’t finish it)
Thanks for reading!
Bifocals and Barbells 