Growing up in the country as a young whippersnapper, I loved summer nights. I’d lie awake and listen to the frogs in the pond a football field away. A cluster of evergreen trees — tall and thick as could be — showed the light-to-medium blue sky through their gaps, making the shape of a dinosaur. One standing on its hind legs, with tiny upper arms, and a long, thick tail stretching behind it. I must have gazed at that prehistoric figure five hundred or more times.
In my scalding bath just now, soaking in Dr. Teal’s heavenly eucalyptus and spearmint scented Epsom salts, I add a cherry on top to my rest-from-running day. A final hurrah to melt the ache in my hip joint.
I sigh deeply at the fatigue in my body — the result of cleaning out the strawberry beds, mending compost, raking leaves and dormant browned grass, transplanting, squats and lunges, and bridge extensions. Despite the loaded day, I’m giving my body rest. But only from running.
At first, I resisted. But as the hours passed, and with hip pain shooting up like a hand eager with an answer, I heard a wise runner’s advice in my mind:
Lean into it.
So when the intensity peaked, I did an exercise. I stepped onto a bench, balanced on one leg, and lunged backward and downward while in midair. This felt like a warrior activity, battling against the pain. Pushing into it, around it, through it.
Whereas a year ago I feared a pain like this, I’m now trying to dig into it deeply.
I’ll also be digging deeper into The BFG. It’s surprisingly gruesome — the bad giants guzzle children down their throats nightly — but the imagery of the good giant and Sophie, and their plan to stop them, is enchanting. They mix wispy dreams and feed one into the Queen of England’s ear, hoping to give her a nightmare so vivid she wakes to find Sophie perched on her window ledge.
We’re at the part where the BFG has blown the dream through his trumpet and fled behind a nearby building, leaving Sophie alone on the sill.
It’s tense.
It’s their only chance to save the children from becoming dinner.
I hope everything works out…
Love, Jaclynn
PS This post’s photo is of a discovery I made today. Lil Miss Chickie who wanders over here from next door has been busy – Sixteen eggs ready for eating!
Going On 40 