Don't tell me this isn't G-d's Cathedral

Late to post this week. My self set standard is to post  Thursdays unless you all pre-empt me..which is most welcome. However, there was a twofer last week thus cutting myself a little slack:). My head is swimming with blog post ideas and I really have to focus in on what may be of interest to others versus my own folly. Well this week I got something stuck on replay that may fall in the folly category . However, I decided I am going there.  Perhaps just to memorialize and stop the record from skipping in my mind (yes, that reference may totally fly over the head of some of our younger sisters..vinyl records?!), OR maybe because this thought line is powerful/empowering to me or possibly meaningful to you. If it is none of the above, it will be a sure siren for one of you to prepare a blog and save yourselves from my future follies.

Folly, here we come....

In Boot Camp Year One (where the sole sister journey began), I was in my early 40s, had not worked out for pretty much 5 years and was struggling. Thinking about my age made me feel old amongst the younger aged folks that were present in boot camp. I experienced lots of aches, pains and injuries (so many it seems like I should say it again... lots of aches, pains and injuries)  with a deep rooted fear that I would terribly injure myself. I was having trouble differentiating from just the pain of exercise versus something really wrong with me.

Do I have a stress fracture? Go to podiatrist. Do I have a hip fracture? see orthopedist. Have I done something terrible to my knee? see orthopedist. Twisted ankle? See podiatrist. Broken wrist from a fall? Nope deep bone bruise, see orthopedist. There's more but I'll stop right there, you get the point.

That fear was further compounded within my healthcare administrator role heavy on sports medicine & orthopedics, I was present for a regular infusion of  medical continuing education which explained injuries, the surgery/intervention, and recovery. Example: Lecture on the latest hamstring repair surgery.  Guess which type of humans were most likely to suffer hamstring rupture? Yes, you guessed it 30-50 year old females doing athletics! We would do the Chariots of Fire bootcamp work out and  I was convinced that intense 48 hour muscle pain was my call for a surgery where in the recovery you are not allowed to sit down to go to the bathroom for 12 weeks. Can you imagine? An active analyzing brain is not always a good thing.

Anyway starting to question was I too old to exercise? I loved how I felt working out and the energy and uplift that occurred during working out and through the day. But these aches, was I supposed to be working out this hard? this regularly?....THEN cue the angelic music, I was watching ABC News and happened to see the Person of the Week segment. Here I learned about the Iron Nun.  As a nice Jewish girl, it is interesting to think that in both my athletic world and my professional world, I have been profoundly influenced by nuns. Professionally Sister Irene Krause helped me on the course to push forward with the hard parts of my job in healthcare. And now, here in 2009, was my athletic inspiration in Sister Madonna Buder. She started at the age of 47 and is currently the record holder as the oldest person to finish an Iron Man. Here is the actual TV segment. It's just a few minutes, please watch, she is so great.

Sister Buder showed me that I am not too old to exercise the way I want to and in fact, I have many many, more years to go. I love the thought of the priest who suggested Sister Madonna  run for "spiritual enrichment", and I entitled this post after my favorite thing she said, "Don't tell me this isn't G-d's cathedral".  There have been so many moments of gratitude, clarity and enlightenment for me during runs, I believe I have a hint of the references of the priest and Sister Madonna. Hope that transmitted to my Rabbi when I ran past him walking to synagogue on a recent Saturday morning.

For those moments, when I say what the heck am I doing as a 50 year old training for my umpteenth half marathon or some other sort of crazy, I just reflect on my touchstone of the Iron Nun and know I could not possibly give up what I gain spiritually as well as health wise in the form of a run or a swim or a spin. Sister Buder is one of my inspirations to keep on running into my 80s.

If you read this and watch the video, thanks for enduring my folly. When I first typed the word in this piece, I double checked my use of this word looking at the definition below. Ha! I don't know if I appreciated all the contexts of folly but I think they all sort of meet me where I am at.

Nuns...hmmmm, They give me a lot to think about.

Full of Folly,

Sadie

fol·ly

[ˈfälē]

NOUN

1. lack of good sense; foolishness:

   "an act of sheer folly"

   • a foolish act, idea, or practice:
     "the follies of youth"
     synonyms: foolishness · foolhardiness · stupidity · idiocy ·

     [more]

     lunacy · madness · rashness · recklessness · imprudence · injudiciousness · irresponsibility · thoughtlessness · indiscretion · craziness
     antonyms: wisdom
2. a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.
3. a theatrical revue, typically with glamorous female performers:

   "the Ziegfeld Follies"

ORIGIN

Middle English: from Old French folie ‘madness,’ in modern French also ‘delight, favorite dwelling’ (compare with sense 2), from fol ‘fool, foolish.’

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