by Amanda van der Gulik
Imagine this:
You've been rehearsing your dances for the performance of "Peter Pan" for the last 4 months. The dances have all come together after many long hours of hard and patience-testing work and then during the last week you find yourself falling on your way up the ramp to the stage. The ramp made especially to show-case the Crocodile's entrance.
You try to brace yourself but finding the ramp hasn't been closed off yet, there is nothing to hold onto and you find yourself instead landing square on your knees, and your leg and your neck bangs harshly on the edge of the stage.
You're a little shaken up...
but you get up slowly, check that all moving parts are still moving and that you have not broken your neck in the process.
Now imagine that as you were falling, you realized there was nothing to break your fall, so you reached out to grab the only thing available...the back of your daughter's sweater...causing your daughter to now also start her downward, backward descent. You quickly realize your error and madly push her forward again, helping her to regain her composure and stop her fall and slowing your own down only by a hair.
The next few days your body is sore, tight and complaining. You hadn't realized that in the fall you had managed to pull your right calf muscle. It's tight and sore, so you slow down your movements, adjust to what it will take. You do extra stretches, ice it, heat it, put a compression sock on it to help it work a little better with a little less pain.
You keep on practicing for your upcoming show...as well as start some tap-dancing and chorus line dances for another upcoming community variety show to raise money for your local community.
Then the very last dress rehearsal arrives and you're half-way through the musical. You've just finished one of the most difficult dances, and you are thrilled that you were able to take it easy on your calf and get through the dance not only well but without any pain. YEAH!
Then the unexpected, the unbelievable happens...you hear a very loud POP!
And it's NOT good! You've completed the dance, it was fine, very fine. You're onstage still waiting for your cue to exit, the cue is to run...as you lift up your leg to do so, that's when the loud pop occurs. Your leg is in the air, the rest of your body is in forward motion ready to land on said leg. There is no way you can stop it from happening and you know that your muscle will no longer hold your weight.
You desperately try your best to crumple as gently to the stage floor that you possibly can. It works, sort of. You make your way to the floor, scoot to the edge of the stage and jump off landing onto your good leg. Then hobble off to the nearest chair and feel the damages. Shock sets in. Realization sets in. You've just torn your calf muscle! No more dancing! No more comfortable walking either! And many weeks of recovery and rest.
Boo! :(
Well, that's exactly what happened to me just a few days ago!
Here I sit with my leg in an aircast, ready to open our "Peter Pan" show and not able to perform well, especially no dancing!
But hey, when life gives you LEMONS...you just gotta make LEMONADE! :)
Yup, it sucked for sure. But I had to find the positive. It happened for a reason, and even if it didn't I was determined to make the most of it.
I could have easily gone off on the "Woa is me..." binge, but that wouldn't get me anywhere but unhappy and make those around me unhappy too.
So what did I do?
I cried for a moment, let the fear enter and then forced it to leave. I still had a leg. It just needed some time to heal and many hours in ER to find out the extent of the damage and how to fix it.
The result was a 1.5cm tear to my right calf muscle with orders of a minimum of 3 weeks of rest and no real weight bearing. But I was able to use an air cast instead of a plaster cast, which meant I could take showers! YEAH!
See the bright side was already starting to show itself.
So I looked a little deeper, what else could be a benefit to this all?
Well, now my daughter would be able to take over my lines during the dancing scenes! See it was getting better and better. AND I would still be able to play "Older Wendy" just with a cane. So all in all not too bad.
It also meant that I was now forced to take the much needed rest that I had been depriving my body.
I wanted to share this with you. I wanted to show you that sometimes life will throw you a lemon, but it's what you choose to do with that lemon that will make all the difference.
I'm choosing to make my body a priority, something I had been putting off. I decided that I was worthy of healing, something else I had been putting off.
It also made me have to stay more at home and gives me more time to work on what I love most, inspiring and raising young entrepreneurs. We had been going through a rough spot financially, due to some personal issues. I was looking beyond what I knew was my best way to make it through this tough time. I was thinking of doing things that would bring in definite income but would take me away from my dreams, my goals, my ambitions.
Now that I couldn't actually physically do those things, it felt like LIFE, like the UNIVERSE, like GOD, was making me focus. Time to work on MY stuff, not on the stuff of OTHERS!
I hope my story will be an inspiration to you to work on YOUR stuff, do what YOU know you should be doing for YOU, for your CHILD. Taking the time to teach your child what really matters most...to do things that make a real difference, not just work for money but build something that you love that will attract money to you because you are giving the best of yourself instead of just settling for what you think you should be doing rather than doing what you KNOW you should be doing.
Follow your dreams. Trust your gutt...and your HEART!
Here's to your and your child's success!
Cheers...Amanda...Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)
Best-selling author, Amanda van der Gulik, has been homeschooling her own two children for over 11 years. She loves to share her own experiences to help other families and is the founder of www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com. Visit Amanda’s site today to grab your FREE copy of one of her amazing money tools for kids and teens, like her eBook, “Goal Setting for Families” workbook or her “50 Money Making Ideas for Kids and Teens” eBook to help your child find some fun ways to make their own dreams come true!
Imagine this:
You've been rehearsing your dances for the performance of "Peter Pan" for the last 4 months. The dances have all come together after many long hours of hard and patience-testing work and then during the last week you find yourself falling on your way up the ramp to the stage. The ramp made especially to show-case the Crocodile's entrance.
You try to brace yourself but finding the ramp hasn't been closed off yet, there is nothing to hold onto and you find yourself instead landing square on your knees, and your leg and your neck bangs harshly on the edge of the stage.
You're a little shaken up...
but you get up slowly, check that all moving parts are still moving and that you have not broken your neck in the process.
Now imagine that as you were falling, you realized there was nothing to break your fall, so you reached out to grab the only thing available...the back of your daughter's sweater...causing your daughter to now also start her downward, backward descent. You quickly realize your error and madly push her forward again, helping her to regain her composure and stop her fall and slowing your own down only by a hair.
The next few days your body is sore, tight and complaining. You hadn't realized that in the fall you had managed to pull your right calf muscle. It's tight and sore, so you slow down your movements, adjust to what it will take. You do extra stretches, ice it, heat it, put a compression sock on it to help it work a little better with a little less pain.
You keep on practicing for your upcoming show...as well as start some tap-dancing and chorus line dances for another upcoming community variety show to raise money for your local community.
Then the very last dress rehearsal arrives and you're half-way through the musical. You've just finished one of the most difficult dances, and you are thrilled that you were able to take it easy on your calf and get through the dance not only well but without any pain. YEAH!
Then the unexpected, the unbelievable happens...you hear a very loud POP!
And it's NOT good! You've completed the dance, it was fine, very fine. You're onstage still waiting for your cue to exit, the cue is to run...as you lift up your leg to do so, that's when the loud pop occurs. Your leg is in the air, the rest of your body is in forward motion ready to land on said leg. There is no way you can stop it from happening and you know that your muscle will no longer hold your weight.
You desperately try your best to crumple as gently to the stage floor that you possibly can. It works, sort of. You make your way to the floor, scoot to the edge of the stage and jump off landing onto your good leg. Then hobble off to the nearest chair and feel the damages. Shock sets in. Realization sets in. You've just torn your calf muscle! No more dancing! No more comfortable walking either! And many weeks of recovery and rest.
Boo! :(
Well, that's exactly what happened to me just a few days ago!
Here I sit with my leg in an aircast, ready to open our "Peter Pan" show and not able to perform well, especially no dancing!
But hey, when life gives you LEMONS...you just gotta make LEMONADE! :)
Yup, it sucked for sure. But I had to find the positive. It happened for a reason, and even if it didn't I was determined to make the most of it.
I could have easily gone off on the "Woa is me..." binge, but that wouldn't get me anywhere but unhappy and make those around me unhappy too.
So what did I do?
I cried for a moment, let the fear enter and then forced it to leave. I still had a leg. It just needed some time to heal and many hours in ER to find out the extent of the damage and how to fix it.
The result was a 1.5cm tear to my right calf muscle with orders of a minimum of 3 weeks of rest and no real weight bearing. But I was able to use an air cast instead of a plaster cast, which meant I could take showers! YEAH!
See the bright side was already starting to show itself.
So I looked a little deeper, what else could be a benefit to this all?
Well, now my daughter would be able to take over my lines during the dancing scenes! See it was getting better and better. AND I would still be able to play "Older Wendy" just with a cane. So all in all not too bad.
It also meant that I was now forced to take the much needed rest that I had been depriving my body.
I wanted to share this with you. I wanted to show you that sometimes life will throw you a lemon, but it's what you choose to do with that lemon that will make all the difference.
I'm choosing to make my body a priority, something I had been putting off. I decided that I was worthy of healing, something else I had been putting off.
It also made me have to stay more at home and gives me more time to work on what I love most, inspiring and raising young entrepreneurs. We had been going through a rough spot financially, due to some personal issues. I was looking beyond what I knew was my best way to make it through this tough time. I was thinking of doing things that would bring in definite income but would take me away from my dreams, my goals, my ambitions.
Now that I couldn't actually physically do those things, it felt like LIFE, like the UNIVERSE, like GOD, was making me focus. Time to work on MY stuff, not on the stuff of OTHERS!
I hope my story will be an inspiration to you to work on YOUR stuff, do what YOU know you should be doing for YOU, for your CHILD. Taking the time to teach your child what really matters most...to do things that make a real difference, not just work for money but build something that you love that will attract money to you because you are giving the best of yourself instead of just settling for what you think you should be doing rather than doing what you KNOW you should be doing.
Follow your dreams. Trust your gutt...and your HEART!
Here's to your and your child's success!
Cheers...Amanda...Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)
Best-selling author, Amanda van der Gulik, has been homeschooling her own two children for over 11 years. She loves to share her own experiences to help other families and is the founder of www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com. Visit Amanda’s site today to grab your FREE copy of one of her amazing money tools for kids and teens, like her eBook, “Goal Setting for Families” workbook or her “50 Money Making Ideas for Kids and Teens” eBook to help your child find some fun ways to make their own dreams come true!
