Bringing Carefree Back

If you've been following me for any length of time, you probably laughed when you read the title for this post. Carefree? Really? What does this type A++blogger know about being carefree?

Well, it's Wednesday, and that means Wednesday Word with Deb Runs. This week's word prompt is carefree, and what better time than the end of the lazy, hazy days of summer to talk about being carefree? And contrary to what you might think, there is a little free spirit inside me...

Summers were pretty carefree when I was a kid. Compared to life now, as kids we weren't overscheduled and playing 14 sports at once. Actually, we didn't do much at all. I grew up in the country, and with 4 girls, my mom didn't have time to schlep us around to activities. So most of my days were unstructured, with the exception of some chores and piano lessons. I'd get up in the morning with nothing on the agenda. Maybe I'd ride my bike over to my cousins' house or to my grandma's farm where we would spend all day doing who knows what? Or I might have a friend over, and we'd spend the day swimming in the pool. Some mornings, I'd just lay in bed reading books. At night, my sisters and I would run around the backyard playing statue maker or catching fireflies. Sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? It was.

I think it would be nice...

How different life becomes when we grow up! Responsibility makes it tough to be carefree. There are work and family responsibilities. And for us runners, there's training that has to be done. I'm heading out of town in a few weeks with my sister, and I have 2 runs to do that I can't push off. My sister likes to schedule lots of sightseeing. So even vacations aren't carefree! Last year, on our sister trip, we missed the bus that was going to take us to see some plantations outside of Charleston. My sister was very upset that her plans were ruined. But me? I did an internal high 5. Downtime? Yes, please. When she asked me what we were going to do with our free time, I suggested an afternoon at the pool. And a beer. While that suggestion didn't initially go over well, it's what we did, and you know what? She said that was one of the best parts of the trip. A carefree afternoon at the pool, reading and talking.

I'll confirm it for you right now. My sister is at least as type A as me, if not more.

I like to throw a little carefree into my life as much as possible. When the boys were younger, our family vacations to Florida were very unstructured, with days at the beach or the pool. But we did schedule a few activities. We took side trips to Disney World. We saw preseason baseball games. Went to an alligator farm. Cape Canaveral.  Summers were very much the same. We took lots of road trips to Wisconsin and went boating, swimming in the lake, and waterskiing. The funny thing is, my boys never complained of being bored, even when we had lots of downtime.

February 2002, Siesta Key Beach, Florida

This summer was completely different. My oldest son got a job, and because we are a little lacking in the trust department, we stayed home for most of the summer. Sadly, there wasn't a lot of carefree in this summer. That's been a little hard on me. Because my job is so intense, my responsibilities at home at times overwhelming, I need that carefree time. Marathon training throws one more activity into the mix, and this year I've found that I'm not enjoying my training as much as I did last year. Is it because I'm putting pressure on myself to meet a time goal? Or is it because I don't have a lot of downtime to relax and process everything that's going on around me? Or is it because the one activity that gives me stress relief is actually the cause of some stress for me? Maybe it's a little of everything.

Running normally makes me feel carefree. When I'm on the road, it's just me and my running shoes. Nothing in my life matters as long as I keep moving forward. Sometimes I do a lot of thinking while I'm running. Sometimes I work out life's problems while the miles go by. But other times, I don't think about anything. The best runs, the ones that are carefree, are the runs when I am in "the zone".

I haven't had one of those carefree runs in a while. I blame the heat and humidity, but maybe because lately I haven't a lot of "carefree" anywhere in my life. Life has been hitting me hard for a while. Writing this post made me realize what's been missing for me. It's time to bring carefree back.