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...