10,000 Steps To Greater Understanding
February 2015
I got a Garmin Vivofit for Christmas because I needed a gentle reminder to get moving. It started off as a fun way to track activity and challenge my sister and her fiancée to see who is the most active but ended up teaching me an unintended lesson.
Shortly after Christmas, my husband decided he wanted in on the challenge. I was super smug about it. My son reminds me that my exact words were, “Daddy is a sloth.” With that remark, I immediately wrote him off as a competitor.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Every day since he first donned that band with few exceptions, he has out stepped me, often by several thousand steps.
I have talked about perception before, but this time it really hit me. My challenger isn’t an acquaintance. This is the love of my life, my best friend in the world. How do I not know this man better and how could I have been so wrong about my own activity level? What other errors of judgment have I made?
My children learned from this experience that Mommy isn’t always right. That, and the meaning of the word sloth. I learned that it isn’t just my body that had become inactive. After twelve years of marriage, I thought I knew everything there is to know about my husband and after thirty something years on this earth that I knew myself better than anyone else. Each step has brought a greater understanding of the depth of my ignorance and a new resolve to strip away the smug know it all attitude and keep an open mind.
For what it’s worth, I’m sorry Ken for calling you a sloth.