At some point, you have to live. Sitting at home all day is not living — it’s a slow death.
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
In a world that tells you to stop living, to give up your dreams, to not go anywhere, to not do anything, to fear for your life, to give up on others, to lay your plans aside, and to not trust that God has got it, in such a world, you need to be unstoppable.
You need to push back, to not believe the lies, the hearsay, the hysteria, and the antics, and to keep moving towards your dreams.
You cannot stop while you have breath in your body, while your legs can move, and your arms can reach for the stars because one day, you will be stopped.
None of us know when that day will come, which is why you cannot stop.
Don’t stop living because the world tells you not to. The world is not in charge; you are.
God will call you when He wants you. Until then, keep moving, keep living, keep dreaming, keep fighting, keep hoping, and keep praying.
Be the unstoppable force you were gifted with from the moment you were born.
Merry Christmas One and All!
Enjoy the day with your family!
My daughter won a free massage for winning first place in our recent 5k. She gave it to me, which, of course, I’ll use!
I’ve been looking for a new massage person for a while now, after having left Massage Envy, which is just too far to drive now.
I calledColorado in Motionand made an appointment. I didn’t really know about the place, which turned out to be an occupational and physical therapy center.
So, I got my first medical massage. And I learned a lot.
Apparently, my muscle is very “organized,” meaning you can see the actual individual muscles. My arms are defined, and I’m very flexible, which I thought I was not. I had a great massage and plan on going back for my next one!
During the holiday season, you attend a lot of parties, sometimes begrudgingly. You traipse along, the lure of food and drink the only reason that one foot is following another. You attend your company’s party because you feel like you have to. You go to your gym’s party because, well, you’re actually unsure why.
Once at your gym’s holiday party, you resign yourself to being amenable — friendly even. You start listening to people tell about their past year, and suddenly your eyes are opened. You listen to the tragedy of a career and a heart broken when someone’s work dog is taken away from them, for truly no reason behind it. You listen as you hear a story of how someone almost lost an arm, but in the end, the body miraculously heals, and the future looks bright. You find out someone got engaged, after a bitter divorce. You find out recent moves have led to new opportunities. You discover a deep yearning inside someone to explore this world. You discover unrequited feelings that will have to be suppressed.
You see so much pain in people’s lives that has been overcome, absorbed into the human condition that makes us all broken. For most of the year, you go about life, thinking people suck because humans are selfish, mean, rude, and annoying. For most of the year, you wish you could bury yourself in your home, insulate yourself from the evils in this world because if you truly thought about the world’s pain, suffering, and heartaches, you’d go insane.
You begin to examine your own life, your own struggles, your own feelings that have been guiding you. And suddenly, they don’t seem so bad. You realize everyone is struggling with something. You know the path you’ve been given is yours alone to walk. And you discover that path is peppered with people who zig-zag in and out of your life, some staying for longer than others — a lifetime if you’re lucky — who take your hand and walk with you, supporting you, leading you at times, and imbibing you with the strength you need to keep going.
No one promised this world would be easy. No one said you wouldn’t struggle. No one said you wouldn’t look pure evil in the eye one day (or for some, it’s many, many days) and have to overcome it. No one promised your heart wouldn’t be broken, a loved one wouldn’t die, or even that your dreams would come true. In fact, you weren’t promised anything or anyone in this world. The only thing you are promised is the next moment in time that you are living, breathing, and being. It’s that one moment that you have control over — how you spend your one moments equals to how you spend your life.
Yet outside of those moments, the one gift you have been given in this world is others. Thus, you truly only have moments, and if you are lucky, you have others. So the question for you becomes: How are you spending them?
Beauty is in hindsight; finding the reason behind everything only happens sometimes and always with time and with perspective, and if you’re lucky, you’ll learn from the reasons and the hindsight. But the true luck — the true blessings — are the people you can call friends who walk with you — even if only for one hour during an innocuous gym workout.
And that’s what you learned at your gym’s holiday party. And that’s the reason you went. Life truly can be beautiful; you just have to believe it is so…
There’s a lot to be thankful for.
Take some time today and remember what you are grateful for, enjoy time with your family, and eat!
Happy Thanksgiving!
As I sit here in my nice warm house, watching the snow fall silently all around, blanketing the ground and every living creature in a speckled white, I realize how lucky I am.
I’m in a building with four walls that is heated with central heat. I don’t have to leave my home to get firewood. I turn on the faucet to get dinner going, and water magically comes out — unfrozen and warm even. I heat up my coffee, which I bought from the grocery store, and it warms my soul.
I look out at the beauty that surrounds me and realize this is all possible because of those who came before me and those who continue to do their jobs, day in and day out, to make this life possible. From the Armed Forces who allow me the freedom to live each day how I want to the plumbers, the roofers, and the home builders who make this abode possible, I am eternally grateful.
And to the restaurants, the insurance companies, the lawyers, the doctors, the fitness industry, the oil and gas workers, and even to the company you just got assigned that you have no idea what they do. To the police, fire, EMT’s and hospital workers who protect us all. To the teachers, the kids, family, the cats, the dogs, and the horses who make getting up each and every day worth it.
And finally, to my team (and by team, I mean all of Madwire) who helps each of these people above and countless more grow their business so we all can stay in our homes, work at our computers, admire (and even play in!) the snow, cook a hot meal, stay warm, and celebrate the beauty all around.
There’s a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.
And I am grateful for you!
Here I go…again.
I’m injured. Unsure how. My doctor thinks I banged my thumb. Either way, I have strained a ligament in my thumb. It just looks weird; it doesn’t hurt. Still, it sucks. I’m avoiding lifting heavy. I just want to be injury free.
God…
It’s winter, but winter on the Front Range in Colorado never truly feels like winter. You see, we’re spoiled here. It snows, but usually melts the next day. Ice doesn’t stay around long (ice storms are virtually unheard of here). The winter temperatures hover in the 40s usually.
This week it’s been cold — bitter cold. Negative degree temperatures at night. Single degree temperatures in the day.
So cold that picking up my CrossFit barbell in my insulated garage (useless in this cold of weather) gives me shudders. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to do anything. I just want to stay home with a cup of coffee (still waiting for Starbucks to figure out delivery), a cat on my lap, and a book in my hand.
As much as the extreme cold temperatures suck, take advantage of the downtime. Do those projects you’ve been meaning to do around the house. Spend time with your kids. Watch a movie together on Netflix or Amazon Prime. And rest up. Cause soon enough it will be go time once again!
Today, I didn’t want to do anything.
So I didn’t.
No working out. No strength work. No leaving my house.
I managed to do a little bit around the house. That’s about it.
Around 1 pm, I was done. I took a nap. I read a book. I laid around.
It was a mental rest more than physical.
My husband wonders how I get up every day and work out early in the morning.
Part of it is will power. The other part is routine.
Even my will power needs rest.
Today was it.
My Journey to the CrossFit Games 