Hula Hoops and Hop Scotch

Spring is Here

With the arrival of April, the Northern hemisphere is rejoicing as spring knocks on our door and I feel like an excited tourist wanting to visit every corner of a city yet to be explored. It’s exciting to be at the cusp of waiting for spring to arrive. Last year felt like two winters put together. No wonder I felt the need to jump into spring. When we finally started to get some warmer days in the past few weeks, I ran out to the backyard with my kids and in all my cheery excitement played the classical games almost everyone grew up with: Hula hoops and hopscotch.

I shimmied my waist and twisted it to keep the hula hoop up in the air. In the beginning, I was rusty and out of practice. Once I became one with the hula hoop, I couldn’t stop. I kept going and had hula hoop competitions with my kids to see who would hold it up the longest. I probably had unfair advantage but my kids are young and I’m old, so I would say they had the unfair advantage. Guess what? I kept winning all the time.

When it was time to play hopscotch, I drew very big squares for a good challenge. We foraged some rocks and used them to land on the square. My legs got a good workout and the kids were so happy to see their Mom play with them. My husband, Shakil, told me to take it slow. Take it slow? I’ve been taking it slow for what seems like an eternity. I had all this latent energy and I wanted to use it to play. It was a wonderful day.

The next day, I woke up with pain in my stomach and my legs. I felt every spasm. What happened? Since I was not used to so much activity and sprung into action, my body was shocked. It took two days for me to recover from the pain. Why did I do this to myself?

Even spring doesn’t just spring out of nowhere. There’s lots of hidden work happening beneath the surface. This hula hooping and hopscotching episode reminded me to take it slow and refrain from rushing to spring into action. Take your time. The slow transition of the seasons remind us that we have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves and take in the marvelous beauty all around us. If we get so absorbed into getting to a destination instead of enjoying the journey, we’ll lose the essence of getting there. The purpose is not to arrive but the journey of how we arrived there.

What activities are you looking forward to in the spring? Has there ever been a time in your life when you were so excited to jump in that you forgot to take it slow?

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