True North


Vacations are like paragraph breaks in the stories of our lives. Without them life could easily be one long run on sentence.

A change of some sort, either in circumstances or routine, gives an opportunity to re-orient to the True North from which we drift so easily. And so this time, away from our busy lives, has been a chance to do just that.

I have gone for long walks in the country each day, on my own and joined by Paul. At home I had been walking quite regularly, nudged by a hard to resist, four footed friend, and motivated further by a couple of books on CD that made me decide to get some exercise no matter how busy I was. But here I have ramped it up a notch.

I've been learning to control my blood sugar through eating more high fibre foods (and taking fibre tablets) and eating carbohydrates judiciously. I'm saying this cautiously, because I could be wrong, but I think that I've finally figured out that by avoiding sugar spikes that result in cravings that trigger binging on more high sugar foods, I can feel satisfied with much less food than I've tended to eat. I'm not big into self denial and I love food, but am becoming more aware of the science of how different foods affects blood sugar and thus appetite and eating more deliberately, with that in mind.

On one of our walks I asked Paul how he thought "we" were doing. It is so easy to drift into living parallel lives; comfortable being in each other's vicinity but almost completely absorbed in our own interests. Now and then it is a good thing to ask directly if it could be better, and how. I was glad I did. Tentatively he trusted me with truths he may not have expressed otherwise. And I was listening closely; ready to re-orient to True North.

We walked on, fingers intertwined...tenderness deepening and intimacy growing, as we followed the needle on the compass.

Comments

Marilyn said…
Intentionality in asking shows it's important!
6:58 AM
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