Charting Personal History

When I compare myself today to the person I was 5 years ago, I hardly recognize my old self. I found myself mentally charting the course of the changes as I worked out on the elliptical machine today. The result was similar to a family tree, oddly enough.

So what was I like 5 years ago? I was a workaholic who had sort of given up on looking and feeling good and had placed my emotions on hold. I always got outstanding performance ratings and large monetary awards, but I was often too busy to even notice what was going on around me. My body was atrophying from lack of exercise. I was simply going through the motions of living. Fortunately I had a stable marriage to a loving husband, but even so I was often in physical pain and not always happy.

Then one of my employees suggested that I try yoga on Capitol Hill. At first I really struggled to get through a 90-minute level-1 class, using blocks and all the props I could find. But it made me feel good and I kept coming back each week. I got my husband interested in yoga and sometimes went more than once a week.

Meanwhile the owners of the yoga studio kept singing the praises of massage. So at age 55 I had my first massage and was instantly hooked.

I decided to try meditation after observing the lovely space devoted to that practice at the place where I received massage.

When I spoke of how much I had enjoyed playing the piano decades before, my massage therapist urged me to take it up again, which I did.

Through her I met Bill, who played my first duet with me, and soon thereafter introduced me to Deborah, the person I play with every week. Bill continues to be our “coach.”

Through my massage therapist I also discovered Blogging. I went from being a person who signed on to my home computer maybe once a week to a crazed Blogger who is compelled to write every day. I came to love my new electronic friends.

But one of the best changes over the last few years was my renewed appreciation of the people around me. I started to let myself get involved in their lives and allowed them to enter my space.

I’m grateful for this chain of people who have helped me on this journey. Was it just by chance that our paths crossed at the right time? Probably, but who ever knows for sure?