I have some days when I wake up in the morning with a feeling of excited anticipation for the day ahead.  Today wasn’t one of those days.

The feeling has, however, grown as the day has gone on.  My immediate reaction was that I’ve overdone it, I’m exhausted, but I’m happy to confirm that this is not the case!

It’s amazing what a bit of targeted pottering can do to raise the spirits!  Today was my first official day of “preparing to return to work”.  Given Wimbledon has finished and it’s a rest day in Le Tour, it could hardly have been planned better!

I’m up to over 30 mins on my twice daily walks now.  I have found a circuit that takes between 14 mins (fast, hard) and 15.5 mins (steady, comfortable).  Today was a comfortable day.  The sun put in an early appearance too.  I was home and hosed early.  A great way to kick the day off.

The rest of the day was spent connecting…

Communication was difficult immediately after the Heart Attack… not the easiest thing to drop into casual conversation (“Oh, and by the way, I’ve just had a Heart Attack”), and not something that you can leave out (“No, everything’s fine. Honest!”).  So, the easiest approach is to avoid the conversations.  People who need to will find out in time, one way or another.  As a result, it’s very easy to live in your own little bubble.  Comfortable but isolated.

For a short time this helps.  You get rest, not tired out by visitors.  Protected from the stresses and strains of every day life.

Eventually you need to re-connect, catch up, make contact.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  The longer you’ve been in the bubble, the more difficult it is.  The world moves fast (or at least it feels like it does when you’re not moving with it!).  Today was my day to grab the bull by the horns…

The day included a (very) brief client meeting and a “news” release on the website to announce my imminent return (so much easier than having to announce that I was sick!).  Both were small things, but felt big to me.

The highlight of the day was re-connecting with a couple of really good friends*.  Being men, I am confident that now we have spoken about my Heart Attack, there is no further need to discuss it.  More than anything, I think this has helped me feel like the worst is behind me (and, fortunately, that really wasn’t that bad either).

Oh… and I’m hopefully going fishing tomorrow!  🙂

***

*Pete – I know I need to call you, sorry!