Queen of Chaos

Triathletes usually have plenty of time to contemplate the myriad of lessons one can learn from triathlon: discipline, structure, organizational skills, mental fortitude, health benefits, and so on. Well, I’ve been contemplating some of the lessons that Hannah is teaching me, as a triathlete.

The first lesson is how to let go of structure. As a psychologist once told me, I seem to find ways to bring structure into my life. Her advice, to let go of structure for a while, left me feeling strangely perplexed. Letting go of structure felt like tossing out my internal compass. Well, now my compass is oriented on Hannah, and she’s the Queen of Chaos, so goodbye structure, hello planned spontaneity. This means that I plan my day around a workout, but I have little to no control over when that workout will take place. So, I’m learning to roll with it.

The second lesson is around prioritizing. I’m still struggling with this one. I still want to get everything done – housekeeping, cooking, reading, seeing movies, proper stretching, and keeping up with my friends. Pretty much all of these have gone completely by the wayside or suffered severely of late. I’ve focussed my priorities on Hannah, my immediate family and exercising (which keeps me sane).

The third lesson is the importance of family. Without a supportive husband and loving parents who are always happy to spend time with Hannah, I think my sanity would have suffered a lot more by now, and that is something I haven’t (thankfully) had to talk to a psychologist about.