I had no idea about the stitches! Sorry to hear that happened to you - those war wounds are just part of getting back into the game, no? Before I tore my ACL, I used to like the nicks and bruises I would see on my legs after a soccer game - little, colorful reminders of being active and living...
As for your thoughts and worries about matching her intensity...I suppose I would also agree that you might be over-thinking things - though my first thought was: take care of you first, be comfortable with the possibility of any outcome with her - which can only be the case if you're fully at peace with being whole on your own - and then just allow things to happen as they must.
Rather than sitting back, perhaps you can think of it more as stepping in - or, I guess the usual phrase is: staying in the moment. A pace is about what came and what follows, right? It's determined not by the moment, but by the whole flow of an exercise? Perhaps that's just not the most appropriate way to be in a relationship - in which you might benefit more from forgetting about pace (which also suggests a dangerous link between expectations and goals) and focusing more on where your next step will fall instead.
"Newness is great and learning is always a positive, but man, it is tough at times to break the mind and body of ingrained, decades old habits! That is my frustration!"
Very tough indeed...I think about the same thing - and sometimes I think I make the mistake of dwelling too much on whether or not I'm repeating a pattern - rather than just being in the moment and living it fully. Our minds are great for so many things - but not so much for living in the moment of a relationship.
How's the head? And, how's the knee when you play?
