Th Synchronicity of 50

 Synchronicity or the meaningful coincidences that we tend see in our existence of everyday things that seem to have no connection but feel like they really do.  Well, that is what some people might call it anyway, but I call it “Ka”.  Of course, I do after all I am a disciple of The Dark Tower, and the Tower is held together by Ka. 

The pattern of the number 50 kept showing up in my life this week.  At the age of 50, I am progressing on losing 50+ pounds.  This has been achieved by good eating, cycling, and workouts.  The workouts with weights have gotten more intense, which lead me to ordering two 25-pound plates, which of course adds up to 50.  I also ordered extenders from power blocks of 40 pounds but with all the packing on that box it weighed 50 lbs.  Then, I did the math this week and I am 50 pounds from my goal weight.  That is what we call KA, or the Synchronicity of 50. 

So, then riddle me this, how does +0.2 factor into this?  Well, that was the result from the scale this week at Weight Watchers.  Oh, did I not tell you that I joined Weight Watchers?  Damn me and my writer’s block.  How else do you think I lost 50+ pounds?  Magik?  I joined WW in the fall, 213-days ago.  I only know that because I have logged and tracked my food every day for 213 straight days, since joining the program.  I love my Saturday morning meetings.  They are awesome.  It’s a good group of people.  I found the most important thing I was looking for when I joined, community.  Ok, all caught up now.  

This week when I weighed in, I was up +0.2.  I was annoyed.  I am going to be honest, I was.  I didn’t want to be, there were various reasons for being up, bad sleep, not regular, 32 ounces of coffee pre-meeting, building muscle, more electrolyte drinks, I mean it could have been any number of things.  I normally, flustered, and then I build a bridge and get over it. 

Vickie our leader stopped by and asked me how my week was.  I said it was bad but good. I said bad because I was up +0.2.  She grabbed a chair and sat down next to and asked me what was good about it and why?  

I did not have to think about this.  That that I had the answer rehearsed or anything, but with the Synchronicity of 50 on my mind, I knew answer, because I had realized the answer in the moment it happened to me.

I told her about my lifting weights and the need to order new weights.  I told her that the power blocks showed up on Thursday and it must have been how they were packed but I just zipped right up the stairs on my shoulder.  It was nothing.  No big deal.

Then I said on Friday my two 25-pound plates showed up.  This box was denser, and I don’t know why exactly but it was heavy.  Really heavy.  It was just a dense compact amount of weight.  I knew the moment I lifted them it didn’t feel like 50 pounds.  It felt heavier.  I moved them the front porch to the first stair (my gym room is upstairs).  Then I turned and closed the door behind me.  I didn’t want Chippie 2 to get in (I have Chipmunk who lives out front, he is named Chippie 2, b/c my Sister B has one living outside of her house and his name is Chippie) and my house has a very strange way of attracting animals to it.  So better to be safe than sorry.

I turned back to the stairs and said let’s get these up there.  I grabbed the box and again was damn, this is heavy.  I pulled it up to my waist, slash chest area almost like I was carrying a football like a running back.  Again, thinking man this is a heavy 50 pounds.  

Then I started my journey up the stairs.  My stairs are steep.  Very, very steep.  I climbed them.  Each step harder than the one before it.  As I moved up the stairs, I noticed my breath becoming labored and deeper.  Halfway up the stairs I was sucking wind, like an old goat. I keep going one reasons was that I had too and another I wasn’t going to let the stairs win.  Step by step I went up, and my breathing got heavier and more labored.  I just kept going up. 

Finally, at the top, I stopped sucking in air and being like damn, carrying 50 pounds up the stairs really sucks. 

The proverbial light bulb moment happened right then and there.  It was if my mind left my body and went back 213 days and focused on a memory of going up those same stairs, carrying 50+ pounds, and getting to the top and wondering why I was out of breath.  A year ago, that kept happening. I kept thinking there was something wrong with me and my lungs.  How could I ride 50 miles, but I couldn’t go up the stairs without losing my breath.  

That hit hard and I thought to myself, I used to have to carry 50 pounds up the stairs every single day.  Each time I would get to the top of the stairs, I would be winded.  I would hate going up and down the stairs. I don’t have that issue anymore.  I have lost 50+ pounds.  I don’t have to carry it up the stairs every time and that, that is awesome and amazing and that realization alone made this week a good week.  Me going back and remembering how things used to be, how the additional weight impacted my life.

I told her all of this.  She was impressed.  First, and foremost because I carried 50 pounds box up the stairs. Second, because I had the magic moment of realizing the change that I made in my life.  That I was reaping the benefits of my hard work and labor.  It was really a nice moment.  

It is easy to see a +0.2 gain as a negative. When the truth is that it doesn’t really matter.  Weight fluctuations, day to day, bathroom break to bathroom break, and drink to drink.  What really matters is the impact of working on health and driving to a healthier life has on our everyday.  It was never clear to me than when I got to the top of the stairs.  

Yes, I do believe that at this moment in time that Ka is spinning its web, and the wheel of fates keeps on turning.  I believe for whatever reason when this 50-pound box showed up on my doorstep there was a lesson to be learned. I also believe that the tower is closer.