So…why don’t earthworms bury their dead?

The other morning I woke up in one of my moods…I did not care to exercise.  I wanted to quit.  I got mad because it should be easier to decide to take steps to be healthy…I just keep thinking…”Fit folks don’t have to do this!”  So, I wanted to give up…I go through this often..so no alarm…All winter and much of April, I lamented about the weather preventing me from getting my walk on since my preferred method of exercise is walking through my fine town.  I get to see all the beautiful historic homes on my route and when I’m in for a long walk, I get to take in our historic downtown area.  Well how much nicer can you get with 58 degrees in the morning?  Yeah, I’ve been lazy. So…I pushed..and fought and fussed..and hemmed and hawed and all of that…then I got up and put my clothes on to walk.

Instead of staying in the neighborhood, I ventured out and walked towards downtown through the aforementioned scenery.  Part of this trip is on a sidewalk next to grassy areas.  This morning I noticed an alarming number of dead earthworms when I walked.  This completely and totally creeped me out!  It made my skin crawl.  I know…I know…they can’ t hurt me…but that doesn’t change how it made me feel.  Every now and then, I’d come across one that was still alive and was pushing through trying to get to its destination.  No matter how dehydrated, flattened or whatever it was, it kept trying it’s darnedest to get to wherever it was going!  I tried to scoot on past them but the lesson had already been taught.

I pressed on and finished my walk.  I didn’t make it all the way downtown…but I did manage to get my 40 minutes in at a decent pace.  The entire walk though, all I kept thinking about was those earthworms.  Those poor ones that were still on the sidewalk who lost their fight and the ones that were still struggling to make it.  I realized that the ones who continued to fight, even the hopeless ones with partially flattened bodies are fighting.  Do they know that their fight is hopeless?  Who knows, but I see their little wiggling selves trying and trying and trying.  That told me that no matter what, I should just keep fighting.  Keep hoping.  Keep moving.  Do. Not. Give. Up.

One of my challenges in my journey is not seeing many people who’ve had success starting from where I did.  When I do find folks who’ve lost as much weight as I have to lose, I only see their end result and their maintenance phases.  But I want to see where they started…their frustrations.  It’s hard to find their stories from the beginning.  When you stop seeing results, you get discouraged and it’s easier to just quit.  I guess I’ll be like the earthworm though…I’ll press through…and keep wiggling and pushing and trying to make it to my destination until there is no more breath in me.  Yep…that’ll do it…

Until next time,

Hakuna Matata