The Mom Chronicles: Finding our Your Inner Turkey
Welcome back, moms! I feel like it has been forever since I've been here! With election season now over, I am back reclaiming my spot in your papers and happy to be doing so.
I am happy to report that I have, even in my absence, been keeping good on my end of the fall shape up challenge. While the weight isn't exactly melting off, to my great frustration, what is happening is I have remained commited to my goal even when there were many days I felt like quitting.I guess you could say, I have had to find my inner turkey and forge on.
As many of you are well aware of, motherhood can get a little, oh-who am I kidding, a lot hectic. My house is no exception. Especially in a house where there is just one parent around most of the time, and it happens to be the same one also trying to go to school and achieve her own goals. There are always things to be done, places to go, appointments for the kids. It often seems like it never ends. Yet oddly as it may seem, this hasn't been the biggest barrier for me in terms of achieving this goal set for myself.
What has and continues to challenge me, not only in this instance but in many walks of life, is my own ability to self sabotage. To quit. To throw in the towel. To not fight for what I want. Now don't get me wrong. If you ask those who know me or are closest to me, this is not how they would define me. They would say I am resiliant. I am dedicated. I dig deep and when things get hard I forge on. But appearing that way and actually feeling and being that way are two very different things.
As it turns out this whole shape up challenge and goal to run the Gobble Gait was something I set my sights on knowing I would be challenged by it, more mentally then physically. I have been a runner in the past, running cross country in college and the like. But many times that feels like it was in a different lifetime. And rather then the successes I had in it, I remember that one big time I failed miserably. I remember the worst race of my life, and hardly a run goes by that I don't return to that day in my head and how it felt.
So why then would I set a goal that involves running again? The truth is my moms, that as moms and as women we are faced with obstacles each day. We are faced over and over with failures and things we wish we had done better. Yet, we don't give up. We are resiliant. We forge on. When confronted with the the same bedtime battle we've had for two weeks, or same argument with our daughter we've had so many times we could predict it word for word, we persist. We don't always know how or why, but we do. Some may say it's because we have to, others may argue it's who we are.
But what happens during those times, as I have been facing, when it does seem easier to give up or give in? When quitting seems more desirable then the blood, sweat and tears of continuing the battle? Then what?
Enter my new inspiration: the turkey. I am, afterall, training for the Gobblegait which just happens to be on Thanksgiving, and so then, it seemed rather fitting to involve this delicious yet ever inspiring bird.
I know little about turkeys other then I've never cooked one myself, but that they taste delicious. And so I did a little research. They are actually rather intelligent when in the wild, and they tend to flock together. They can be territorial and fight for what they want or what is theirs. They are aware of their surroundings and have certain inate characteristics that help protect themselves from preditors.
So what does that have to do with any of us? The thing is, when we think of turkeys this is not how we see them. We see them golden and plump and on our tables. We see them as victims. The fact of the matter is turkeys aren't running around seeing each other getting plucked out to be Thanksgiving feasts and just rolling over giving up accepting that fate. No. Infact they flock together. They do what works. They continue to assert themselves to reign over what is theirs. They continue their rituals, they continue to gobble and call out as if to take a stand and say go away preditors! I may not be the most vicious of animal but I am going to puff out my feathers and raise my head high and make you think I am.
This my moms, is what we, too must do. When faced with challenges we must also ban together, which in many ways, is what this column is all about. When faced with obstacles such as the Gobblegait has been for me, we must act in such a way that doesn't show our fear or doubt in ourselves, but find that inner gobble that is going to call out as a warrior call and announce we are here. It may not always be easy to find that part of ourselves. But rolling over and being defeated is also not an option. If I am going to be served on a platter as someone's Thanksgiving dinner, I am going to make them work awefully hard to get me there.
And so my moms as you embark on whatever challenges you face this week, I urge you to take a moment and find your own inner turkey. Not the golden basted one that is on your table, but the Wild one that runs free. See you next week.
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