The perfect red headed Sunday.....

I sit here with the sounds of football on the tv downstairs and a little person's voice in the room beside me singing with yawns in between each verse. It's been the perfect Sunday. The kind of Sunday when you go to church, get your fill of God, and then come home and curl up on the couch. It's the kind of day that you eat chocolate pie with your little person with the same carefree joy that she has as she sticks her finger in the whipped topping that covers it. When you could care less about how many minutes it will take you and the treadmill to rid your physique of the evidence.

So maybe it does cross your mind a couple times if you are really honest with yourself, but the moment is so perfect that you just smirk and have another bite. I sit here with a belly full of the yummiest chocolate pie and whipped topping that I have ever eaten. I hardly mean that it was the best ever made, but simply that it was the best ever shared. I think of the smiles and laughs that I shared with the prettiest little red headed, green eyed beauty over that perfect piece of pie. Funny, because my actual intention was to go for a long run after I finished getting my fill of the Lord this morning; but I only curled in the same spot on the couch refusing to move.

I felt my body relax as my eyes shut and I fell asleep while the sounds of football faded in the background. When I awoke the little person that fills my life with smiles asked if she could have some chocolate pie. When I replied, "only if mommy can too", a smile as big as Texas lit up her face. She seemed it impossible that I would share such a high calorie moment with her, and the look on her face when I stuck my finger in the whipped topping behind her was just priceless. I looked at the beauty that had held my heart for 9 years and I felt an ache that frightened me more than an intruder. I saw her red hair that touched her waist and the delicate hands that played a set of ivory keys as well as any 15 year old and I was overwhelmed. I saw her there, my little red headed girl trying to slip away from me and grow up while I wasn't looking.

I kissed the chocolate on her rosy cheek and wiped a runaway tear as she headed out the door with her happy friends. I thought of the worries of being the perfect competitor..Of the days when I'd stolen her moments to do two cardio's for the preparation...saw the moments that I was grumpy because of the low carbs...When I'd made her sit through morning and night shows so that I could compete...I saw her at 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and now...it didn't seems so important anymore...

I thought of the way her face lit up when we went on vacations...The love that she had for animals in the zoo...for taking pictures...or the way she cherished the short time it took out of my day to read a book...I thought of 10, 11, and 12...
and I knew that there would always be a show and always a girl to compete...there would always be the one I never beat...but a little girl will never always be...she will grow up to be much like me...so if there's a show that I never do...or a dream that never comes true...I would never regret missing it...to do the things I do..like eating chocolate pie off my finger with a grin...and savoring every little moment that I can never do again...So my friends although fitness can heal your very core...please let us not forget there's always something more...like the little person who seems to be just fine...but if you asked would love more of your time...So grab their little fingers as they wrap around your hand...and be the very best friend for the little time you can...for if you look away a moment much too long...your little person with soon be moving on... Fitness Is So good Friends, but let's not forget the rest...

A place to feed the soul

I sit here writing you tonight while the world sleeps. It is completely silent with the exception of a few singing bugs outside the window and the tapping of my fingertips on the keyboard. The only other place that even comes close to making me feel this at ease is a gym filled with grunting overmuscled men trying to lift the weight of the gym. I'm sure I got your attention when you read that. You must be thinking that it would seem the most impossible place to find peace. I'm here to assure you that you are mislead.
I want more than anything, yes just more than anything, to reach out and take more people to this place that they just don't know exists. It's amazing when you discover what it feels like to be there completely in that moment where no one exists but you. It's magical when you close the curtain and leave those puffing too weight hungry animals back stage. It's almost overwhelming when you finally discover your very soul and mind make that awesome connection as you push set after set of too heavy dumbbells. I've failed time after time to reach my clients deep enough to introduce them to this place that few have visited. It's a place that few of us will ever reach. I've been here time after time with just the voice of Frank Sinatra singing about the cycles of our lives. I've heard every word that he's said as my body has pushed its self to cross brick walls.
I've heard as he's pleaded that although he's down so are many others. I've smiled on hard days as he's explained that through the cycles of our lives there will always be smiles followed by tears. I stress that I work out to Frank Sinatra and many like him to make a more silent point my friends. As I walk through the doors and hear the grunts and groans of my less peaceful gym goers with their my daughter couldn't listen music blaring in their ears; I am saddened for them. My heart absolutely aches for their missed opportunity. I assure you friends there is a place that you can go in your mind that will lead you to a deeper peace than you have ever felt.
I've been told before that there has to be a mind body connection in weight lifting to reach your full potential. I believe it goes even further my friends. You have to be there, I mean really there, just you and lose the audience that exists in your background. It's much deeper than the beautiful being that you are hoping to create for the world to see. It's more than the new gym outfit that you are sporting around for the first time. It's the hurt that your best friend keeps throwing at you time after time though you love them unconditionally...It's the way you always fall behind just when you think you will finally get ahead at work...It's the dreams you never made come true...The way others aren't great to you...It's anything and everything that's wrong in your world..
It's when you are there facing it all head on until it's gone. It's that moment when a pair of iron dumbbells become food for your soul. When you are completely in control. It's that moment when no one is there but you, though the room is more than full. When you push out, then bring them down and you never hear a sound; other than the sound of you...So my friends I hope you try to find this place that I want so much for you to see...Just clear your mind, open your heart and your soul shall set you free... Oh fitness friends, it's so much more than a rippled physique; get to know the rest...for oh how it fills a hungry soul...