It's so nice to be needed...............................

And also why I have not posted over the weekend. I am sure you regular readers already guessed this. My respite resident was here, and one of my Hospice residents has taken a decline, so I have actually been having to work. But that is really not what I was refering to in the above caption.

Yesterday, midmorning, my oldest daughter called me and told me that she was feeling down because all she had been doing was working and feeling too tired at night to go for her runs. After explaining to her (yet again) that she needed to set limits at work, because what corporation wasn't going to let one of their workers do just as much as they could possibly do? (I have never heard of one, have you?) I raised a MAJOR over achiever with that one. Must be something to that first born thing after all?

Anyway, our conversation got around to what she could do to motivate her to stick with her running goals. My daughter graduated in the top five of her college graduating class. One time when I was telling her how proud I was of her she replied, "Mom, if you could go back to school with three kids and graduate with high honors, how could I not do at least as good when all I had to do was go to school?" I mentioned this to her and ask her if she could use the same sort of thing now. If I could manage to get out and run with all the folks I am caring for AND having to pay hard earned money for the privilege, she could manage to get out and run after work. Guess what she told me?

That she used to do exactly that, use me to motivate her. But now that I have been running consistently, she consideres me an athlete and it is just normal for me to figure out a way to fit in my running. I don't think I have gotten a better compliment in some time. Me? An athlete? WOW!

We moved onto discussing other options, and then after a few more minutes she told me she was feeling motivated and was going to go out and get in her run. I told her I would call her back later to see how she did. When I did, she reported that she had ran six miles felt great while running, and then came back and mowed her lawn. Am I good or what? Maybe my next career could be that of a motivational speaker. Let's get fired up!