Sundays, puppies, baseball, and books.

1 Comment October 16, 2018 drworobec

I had a moment on Sunday. Life is moments strung together, isn’t it? And this one was a moment for the top of the string.

Sunday was a beautiful Fall day, one of those crisp air days, with blue sky and sunshine and the crunch of Ontario maples beneath my feet. It was the second day of an atypical under-scheduled weekend, two full days in which my family of four spent no more than a couple of waking hours apart. Just how I like it. After an early Sunday dinner, we decided to wander over towards the library to return some books and play some baseball. We grabbed the bat and the ball, the books and the bag, the pup and the dog treats, and away we went.

It’s a short ten-minute walk from my house to Burlington’s Central library, located on a huge urban greenspace with ball diamonds, soccer fields, and a playground just outside the library doors. As we wandered along, the sky began to shift towards an early sunset, another reminder that Winter is on its way. We entered the park, and my daughter and I headed towards the book drop bin, while my husband, son, and puppy headed for the baseball diamond. We called the dog back and forth, a few hundred metres separating ourselves, practicing her recall command, marvelling at her temperament, and showering her with praise and treats. At the book drop bin, I passed pile after pile of Berenstain Bears books, as my daughter happily loaded them into the drawer, waiting for the thump of a book deposit success. Job done, we headed back across the expanse of grass, towards the baseball diamond and our family game.

And that’s when the moment happened.

“Mom,” she said, her six-year-old hand in mine. “I……. I……. I,” she stammered, searching for her words. I could hear the emotion in her voice and see the depth of her feelings splayed across her face. “I love you Mom,” she said as she turned towards me and reached her arms up, her unspoken signal to be picked up. At fifty pounds and four feet tall, she’s not a toddler anymore, but she’s still my baby, and I’ll happily take a wrap-around hug anytime she’s giving them out.

I picked her up, breathed her in, squeezed her tight. And as her little cheek pressed up against mine, I felt the moment overwhelm me too.

Bliss. Gratitude. Joy. Presence. Whatever you want to call it, we felt it.

Green grass under our feet, pink sky above our heads, a puppy at our side, a baseball in our hands. It all came together on Sunday night.

A moment, that’s all.

But a big moment for us.

Thank you for September.

Leave a comment October 2, 2018 drworobec

We’re approaching Thanksgiving, so this post is about giving thanks. More specifically, it’s about giving thanks to my team at work, who do such a great job and who I’m so grateful to have.

We have had a crazy month at Burlington Sports & Spine Clinic. As you may know, our clinic is a part of the Complete Concussion Management national network of clinics, and as such, baseline concussion testing has become a big part of what we do. For the last several years, that’s meant that we schedule a couple of September weekends dedicated to conducting pre-season baseline tests of hockey teams. This year, that meant three full two-day weekends, and well over 400 baseline tests performed. We collect valuable data on each player to compare against, should the player become concussed in-season, and this allows us to make safer, more reliable return-to-play decisions. It’s a great program, and we’re happy to be involved with it, but the logistics are demanding, and that’s where the thanks comes in. Thank you to Emilia, who kept this ship sailing with late Friday nights and long days on Sundays. Thank you to Dave, who organized and planned and made this all happen. Thank you to Amber, Kristy, Mike, Damian, and Britnie, who keep the clinic running smoothly while all this “extra” takes place every September.

A big part of my job, and one of the things I enjoy the most, is talking with my patients. And what I hear again and again, are work stories that make people happy versus work stories that make people unhappy. Work is a big part of many of our lives, and I’m ever so thankful that I’ve found a crew to make workdays fun. They say that you’re the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with, and in September, I was the sum of the people at Burlington Sports & Spine. Thank you for that.

I won’t bore you with the details of the other side of my life in September: the teacher/football coach husband, the back-to-school rush of two young kids, the puppy, and let’s throw a half marathon in there (bad idea), but I will say I’m thankful for it all. I’m thankful for the choices I’ve made to get me to this point in life, the opportunities I’ve been given, and the luck that’s come my way.

And as I look towards October, I’m thankful for an under-scheduled Thanksgiving weekend and for the chance to restore some balance and take a breath.

Make the trade.

4 Comments August 30, 2016 drworobec

We all have our happy places. Mine is most definitely alongside Lake Ontario in downtown Burlington. More specifically, I love a glassy lake, running shoes on my feet, and the solace and peace of an early morning. I got that two days ago, and my runner’s high is still holding strong more than 48 hours later.

But my happy place comes at a price. You see, to access this place, you must make a trade for sleep.

This is an internal dilemma that I wage with myself most Sunday mornings. It’s still dark, life has been busy, I’m too tired, my legs need rest. All of these things come to mind when my alarm beeps at 6:00am and my duvet is seemingly always at its coziest. But more often than not, the thought of my reward pulls me from slumber. This is my prize:

This view greets me less than 2km from my front door. And on a warm Summer morning, the excuses fade away as soon as my feet touch my bedroom floor. I know that the fleeting moment of choosing to get up is the hardest part of an early morning workout and the adrenaline waiting at the finish line is well worth the temporary fatigue. I got the glassy lake I love and a deserted lakefront walkway and I was back home soon after my children woke up, ready to join in on a day of family time.

The end game of all this is that I’m planning to run in the Road2Hope half marathon in Hamilton on November 6th. I have many friends and patients also running this race, and it’s the last local race weekend of the season, making it the perfect choice for slowly building my mileage back up. I live my best life when I set personal goals, and my early-morning-run motivation dips miserably low if I do not have a specific race on the horizon. So I had 14km on my training schedule and managed to sneak out without my four-year-old running buddy tagging along. I stopped en route to take the above picture to share with my kids, as I often do. I usually see some pretty interesting things… skunks, swans, and even a naked man on a bicycle. True story (but no picture).

But the best part of my happy place is the effect it has on me. The peace. The gratitude. The overwhelming contentment.

I hope you’ve got a happy place too. And I hope that you go there often. Even if you have to make a trade to make it happen.

Choose the trade. Choose happy.