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Posts from the ‘Health’ Category

Nov 4

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Slices

“If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won, or lasting happiness achieved.” – Maurice Chevalier

When we live life in slices, in moments, we value and honor each day. If we get stuck in the past replaying what’s happened again and again or in the future wishing or worrying of what’s to be, we miss the power that we have in this very moment to make different decisions, to find and be peace, to dream and do bigger, to push ourselves beyond the fray and excuses to attain our best selves.

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” – Thomas Jefferson

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” – Thomas Jefferson

Some moments are sweeter than others, but they all culminate to define who we are, where we are going, what’s most important and who we choose to be with on the journey. Someday is today with all of its imperfections and beauty. Slice into each moment, moving step by step into who you are meant to be.

Oct 23

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The Next 50

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” – Sophia Loren

I am taking a few days off to relax and enjoy the remaining hours of my 49th year. People asked what I am going to do and I told them that I am going to reflect on the past 50 years and think about what I am going to do with my next 50 years. Time moves quickly and slowly at the same time. We wish days away and then suddenly we’re 50 and feel like 30.

If we don’t pause along the way to witness what was and is right now, we miss the gifts and blessings that surround and embrace us. Regret can only be avoided if we remain present in each moment and aware of our power over our own lives and not distracted by the noise.

When we’re younger, we work on getting experience to get to the next thing, the next promotion, the next opportunity, the next trophy… Now I am more interested in experiencing each day giving my best regardless of recognition, learning new things, gaining insight, creating meaning, traveling lighter, letting worries go, trying to be much less serious and making good use of the experience I have earned by growing others.

Looking back, I don’t have the life I thought I would have but I have the life I was meant to and doing my best to live it well. And each day is overflowing with gratitude, grace, love and sprinkled with delight in the simple moments. Figure out what really matters right now and make each day its own end. So instead of the next 50 years, I think I’ll focus on the next 50 minutes.

Oct 11

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Silly Hats

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!” – Theodore Roosevelt

I gave my niece Emily a silly hat as a little gift for running me in at the marathon last week. I thought it was fun but I wasn’t sure if she’d actually wear it. She was very excited and in her sage wisdom said she’d wear it everywhere now that she doesn’t care what other people think.

It takes some of us many years to get to that point, some never do. Instead of unfolding and blossoming into who we are, we hide and keep true self to ourselves. Pleasing others, making decisions from the outside instead of inside. The sooner we become at ease with ourselves, the sooner we can live a good life being the person we are born to be. Acceptance is a beautiful gift.

Be yourself, unencumbered and unafraid. Let go of expectations and judgment on yourself and others and release your true self to the world, silly hats and all.

“If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

“If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Oct 6

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Behind the Medal

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers, and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” – Therese of Lisieux

There’s so much more behind the engraved medal at the end of the marathon. Traveling as light as possible, I don’t carry my phone so I can’t capture the beautiful scenes on the journey. But each mile has pictures engraved in my memory.

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” – Matsuo Basho

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” – Matsuo Basho

At the start line, thousands of runners gather hopeful and excited, sprinkled with a bit of fear of what’s to come, but starting just the same. My first marathon with my brother John and both of our third marathons.

From start to finish, people gather along the streets clapping, jumping, cheering for strangers – scattering flowers. A mom stops to kiss her husband and kids who are beaming with pride in her feat. Dads and daughters running along side each other.

Mile 17, questions on my sanity sneak into my thoughts then shift quickly back to what I said to myself at mile one – how do you run a marathon? – one mile at a time, break it up. Mile 21, I can make it, take it all in, walk when you have to, keep going. Passing runners at the medical stations exhausted and injured reminds me that there are no guarantees. Anything can happen on marathon day. Everyone does not finish.

I don’t visualize the finish line as much as mile 24.5 where family and friends are gathered, standing for over five hours in 40 degrees cheering thousands of runners on and waiting patiently for me to finally show up. Scattering flowers.

Mile 23.5, my niece Emily runs up to greet me with a hug and smile and starts running me home. She ran her Dad to the finish and came back out for me. My left calf knots up and she stops to rub it out. Scattering flowers.

We approach 24.5 to my cheering crowd – hugs and hoots all around as if I’ve won the marathon. Emily continues on with me and Linda, who has an injured knee, joins us to run me to the finish. Just down the road, Jeanne is waving her arms, doing jumping jacks and joins my finishing pack. Scattering flowers.

The finish line. The medal. The journey that started four months ago and hundreds of miles is complete with the final 26.2. And each mile of the journey, I’ve never been alone. I’ve been gathering flowers.

Oct 1

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Pebble

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.” – Blaise Pascal

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.” – Blaise Pascal

“God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease.” – Bernie Siegel

What will you create today?

Laughter, light, meaning, value, joy, depth? Will your drop in the ocean sink to the bottom or ripple outward in all directions to move another, to inspire. One small deed. A smile. Undivided attention. A word of encouragement.

We create our own world and cast light or shadow outward. A symphony or a clanging drum. A sigh of relief or signal of distress. If we choose worry, it takes front and center stage. If we choose to murmur, it keeps coming out and expands to fill the room with noise, creating pockets of void.

Kindness, gratitude, compassion and love move mountains, create a new landscape, raise us up. Release the best in you and create a new world right where you stand. One small beautiful act at a time. New beginnings, not endings. Create.

Sep 13

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Time and Distance

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” – Thomas Carlyle

As I was getting ready for my 20 mile run yesterday morning, I kept telling myself – time and distance, time and distance. It’s not about speed, but about running long enough to get the mileage in. I was apprehensive about my ankle and missing two long training runs over the past two weeks.

After the first 5 miles, I settled in, let go, listened to music and just ran. Nothing existing before or after, steeped in the flow of the movement, in the moment. When I hit 16 miles, I could feel the wear on my body but knew I would complete it. The last 4 miles were run by my heart.

After a long hot shower, gratefulness and contentment set in, something I was short on the past two weeks. My ankle demanded rest, my head argued that I would lose three months of training capacity if I took a break for however long it for my ankle to heal. Luckily with the encouragement of friends and family, the work of my chiropractor and massage therapist/friend  and rest, I finished.

Sometimes we need to rest. Sometimes we need to push through. Most times we need to do both. It’s the ebb and flow of life. And most of all, when we tire when we are so close to finishing, we need to let our mind rest and run with our heart that tells us we can do it, we have it in us, keep going.

Anything we pursue in life requires our whole person to be on the same team – our body, mind, heart and spirit. Our heart and spirit are fueled by faith. And often times our body and mind stray, leaving the heart and spirit to finish the job. And when we put the time in, we will go the distance.

“Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.” – Max Frisch

 

 

Jul 23

7 Comments

Authentic Leadership

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

I asked Jeanne to teach me how to do speed work so I could mix up my running routine, making it a little less routine. It’s easy to get into a rut even in good habits. Tonight, she taught me and made it fun. There are many more lessons I’ve learned from her through the years. She’s magnetic and draws people to her with who she is to the core.

Jeanne will often say she’s a follower not a leader. It could not be farther from the truth. Authentic leadership is unselfish, shining the spotlight on others. Authentic leadership shares knowledge with actions more than words, with genuine enthusiasm more than pontificating. Authentic leadership is ego-free and generous in spirit, actually making us believe that we know more than we do, building our confidence to keep trying.

So when I look for models of leadership, I am certainly not looking at those in politics, entertainment or most businesses. Real leadership is modeled by those in our daily lives who quietly, unassumingly and authentically live it out each day, reaching outward rather than calling attention to self.  Natural and real, building others rather than themselves.

Outstanding lesson in not only speed work, but authentic leadership in so many areas of life – thanks Jeanne, your grateful student.

Jul 20

9 Comments

Thoughts-Filled

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.” – Swami Vivekananda

Left unattended, our thoughts can lead us to dead ends, detours and delays. What’s on our mind becomes where we will go, or more importantly where we won’t go because we are bound up with fear, diminishing our relationships, our potential, our purpose.

Listen to your thoughts, attend to them. What’s reeling through your mind distracting you from the depth of the moment? – the past, regret, to do list, worry, offenses, conversations, assumptions, unforgiveness, disappointments. Days in the past get rewound and replayed over and over again.

We can stop reliving our days and start living each day moment by moment, step by step, doing the work of work, play and rest. Our thoughts are the first step to our day and what will come tomorrow and the next. What we give credence to is what our life becomes.

We can set a new pattern and fill our mind with thoughts that propel instead of paralyze. Thoughts filled with possibility, enthusiasm, joy, dreams, laughter, love, compassion, delight. Centering and calming as the ocean rolling in, a soft breeze, a long run, a sunset. Fill your thoughts on purpose each day and make sure that they inspire, edify, grow, build and excite you and watch what happens.

Jun 23

6 Comments

The Human Spirit

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” – Wilma Rudolph

Another Grandma’s marathon, another first marathon to celebrate. This time it was my niece Emily’s turn and she did it! The first marathon is about finishing. It’s the “I think I can and I’m ready but I’ve never done it before” elusiveness.

Four to five months of training, commitment and hard work gets you to the start line. You learn the value of preparing your mind as much as your body as well as your spirit. All play an important role in getting to the finish line.

Many training runs by yourself convince you that you are alone in this effort. But when you get to marathon day, you soon realize through the support and encouragement of family, friends and complete strangers along the way that you are in no way alone in the endeavor, or in life for that matter. The cowbells, people yelling your name, the texts from family and friends checking in, the running by your side the last mile show how many people are cheering for and sharing in your success.

“The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.” – Luc de Clapiers

“The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities and make the most of one’s resources.” – Luc de Clapiers

Whether it’s a marathon or another dream or goal, the meaning comes from the journey before ever getting to the start line. It’s the unfolding and freeing of the human spirit that deepens the meaning and calls us to seek more challenges and dreams. There are no short cuts – the secret is in the intersection of time, effort, focus, consistency, faith, optimism, persistence and determination.

Pick your “marathon” and go for it with your whole heart, mind and spirit. We all have longings that pull at us to go out into the world to give and be our best, beyond what we could ever imagine. We need only to take the first step and each that follows become second nature. Your human spirit is ready and waiting to take flight.

Jun 11

2 Comments

Soar

“For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.” – Countee Cullen

While it may seem counter intuitive, that which we let go, releases us to soar higher than we could ever imagine. Yet we cling to inequities, as if holding tighter and owning them fiercely, we justify our position.

Often that which we despise, we become when we act and react in kind to what has been done to us or our perception of what has been done. You name it – it happens every day in dozens of ways. The guy at work who takes credit for your ideas. The car that cuts you off in traffic.  Those people who continue to get ahead who haven’t paid their “dues.”  The customer who relentlessly complains to get her way. And the list goes on. But we need not go on with it.

“Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, 'Just watch!'” – Bill Bradley

“Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, ‘Just watch!’” – Bill Bradley

The tighter we cling, the less we have – a hollow “prize” that steals our energy, creativity and zest. Instead of moving ahead into the life we are built for, we dig a deeper hole in the same spot, content with being right, but stuck in a hole nevertheless.

We hold our fingers crossed behind our back when we tell ourselves to let go, so we can hang on to a small piece as to not completely give it up. However, we must completely let go to be completely released, to rise above and move forward. It is impossible to partially let go and still take flight, to soar.

 

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