Today, I decided to try and wring out the bumpiness that has been plaguing me since yesterday. After running (around the track for three miles....not my favorite exercise venue), I went to do some work on the weight machines. It helped. While working my arms, I had a thought. Let me explain. The biceps machine is so much more difficult than the one that helps me work my triceps. I can push more than twice the amount of weight on the triceps machine than I can pull into an arm curl for my biceps.
My thought is this: in life, pulling something (-one) toward us is much harder than pushing something (-one) away from us. Think about it physically. Pulling a sled is tougher than getting behind it to push (for me it is, anyway.....even if in both instances the sled is carrying two kids and a dog). Another physical example: Pulling a child along by the hand through a crowded place takes more effort than getting behind said child and guiding him that way with your hands on his shoulders.
Figuratively, it's the same. Pulling someone toward us gives me the visual impression of making him or her come to us against his or her will. The reluctant boyfriend, the wary stray cat, the stubborn child are some examples that come to mind. I'm not talking about the physical pull, either. I'm talking the kind that attempts to lure or welcome through emotion, deeds, kindness, etc.
Pushing someone away is easy. It requires omission of thought, the end of emotion, giving up, moving on. It is sometimes a positive step that takes a long time to get to, but once it starts, momentum helps. Sometimes, it's not positive, but it happens anyway. Sometimes, it is something that happens a little by little in the beginning, like giving a heavy sled little, nudging pushes against deep snow to get it started. Once the motion begins, however, the gliding away begins. It's scary how easily it can happen in some cases. It's hard to know how to stop that runaway sled or other instances of pushing away once the momentum gets started, too
So, that's my exercise metaphor for life today. Just random thoughts in the gym. And the bumpiness? When I got home, I knocked the salt shaker off the counter, and it rolled behind the fridge. Now I have the bad luck of spilt salt (yes, yes, I threw some over my left shoulder immediately). I also still have a salt shaker behind the fridge, because the pushing and pulling on the weight machines for firm arms left me too weak to move that fridge.
Taking Life as it Comes
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