037 ☼ Letting go people

A week of good-byes

Welcome to my email newsletter 'Never not [thinking about] running' - a weekly newsletter about running and mental health. If you haven't subscribed yet and you're not sure whether you really want to receive an e-mail from me on every Tuesday, have a look at the archive. Todays newsletter is about a week of good-byes. Some were not avoidable, some were surprisind, some were painful.

Letting people go at work means work

It's been a busy and eventful week, which is why today is just a really short update. Summer is really kicking off, which for me at work means that I usually have all sorts of tasks piling up. Colleagues usually disappear on vacation for a while and before they leave, they quickly push some work onto me. Thanks for that. After all, I'm going on vacation myself in four weeks and I'll see what tasks I can hand out to my colleagues. So much for "letting people go". And it doesn't end here either.

Saying good-bye to a running buddy

My Norwegian running buddy left me on Sunday. He spent four planned years here in Germany with his family. Now he's going back and I'm left with a gap that I won't be able to fill any time soon. Even if we weren't on the road together every week, we had regular exchanges in the knowledge that we live in similar circumstances (family with three children), we have similar ideas, values and views, which was great for the exchanges on our runs together. There is nothing better to have someone to talk to on those boring slow longruns. Bye-bye.

Kid 1 leaves for summer camp

On Monday we sent child 1 off to summer camp for two weeks. I admire his courage to just go there, knowing that he doesn't know what to expect. Okay. He was there last year too, but a camp like this is always a black box. It will make him bigger and braver than I ever was and I imagine and hope that I may have helped him a little bit to be the way he is. See you in two weeks! Even though I'm currently enjoying only having to look after two children, I'm surprisingly already missing him.

The letting go you never want to experience

Our neighbor found out this week what it means to have to let her child go in a completely different way. She is probably in her 80s and her son died unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism. It is always said that the worst thing for parents is to outlive their children. This was written all over her face as I met her. It becomes even more fatal when you know that even her 103-year-old mother is still alive and has outlived her grandson. You stand in front of these people and you don't know what to say except how unbelievably unthinkable it all is.

Running update

I thought about a 100k-week and it was totally possible, but I stopped myself halfway through the week, which was a wise decision. Right thigh hurts a bit and I want to run a half-marathon on Friday. Ended up with nearly 70k. Still really good. July is good to me. Thanks!

Mental-health-update

Very good things happened this week and I experienced some really nice days with the family which is not a matter of course. Talked about it today in therapy and this ended in a conflict between my inner child and my adult self today. Went home in a cloudy mood.

So that’s it for today. I wish you a wonderful week.

The end

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