crunching the gearbox

A few weeks back I drove a manual (stick shift) car for the first time in four and a half years. It wasn't too bad, I eventually remembered how to use the clutch and worked out the feel of the gears, but it was awkward at first. The worst moment has when I needed to downshift from 5th gear to 3rd, and I think for the horrible moment I think I was in 2nd, and there was that horrible sound of gear crunching as I tried to fix things up. But most of the time I'm not such a terrible driver.

If only I could manage my life as well as I can manage a car.

I’ve been sick with a cold for the last few days. It’s not the worst cold I’ve had, although according to somebody who seemed to have this one about a week earlier than me - I’m now about to enter the phlegm stage. Sorry, that’s probably way too much information...

Moving right along then. One thing about getting sick is that it forces you to change gears. At least it does for me. In the last few weeks I've been feeling rejuvenated - in my writing, exercise and diet, and just trying to live a better a life. Then I get sick and I have to change my focus onto recovery. I'm worried that that I'm going to have trouble switching gears again from sick mode back to healthy mode.

All this has happened before. In fact it's happened so often that I'm eventually seeing the pattern. I feel that I've finally turned the corner, that I'm cruising along quite well, until something happens which forces me to switch gears. It could be an illness or a relationship issue or work hassles or moving hassles or some family problem or whatever. Maybe I handle the hazard well or I don't. The problem is that when that hazard has passed, I forget to speed up again.

So this post is a conscious signal to myself: Get ready to change gears and make some progress before the next slow down happens. Because there will always be something which comes along and forces us to slow down.