Bittersweet
Summer is flying by again. It does every year. I hate that part about summer. But I guess just like everything else, if it was here all the time it wouldn’t be so precious. It’s just a slice of the best part of life. Just like kids growing up and moving on. You only get a season with them. They are grown and gone before you know it. I cry as I write it, because it’s true. But we wouldn’t want them to stay forever. They have to go. It is awesome and sad all at the same time. Just like summer. The only thing is summer comes again.
All life is so bittersweet. Funny how bittersweet the plant is one of my favorite. When I lived in Chicago I would go climb trees in October to cut it. It makes fantastic swags and wreaths. People pay a fortune for it down here in hot Texas. I got it free up in Illinois. It’s poisonous though. The berries are. So like bittersweet. You can look at it, but you can’t taste it. But I think that the bittersweetness of real life you taste. You can’t experience an experience without tasting an experience. And then you get poisoned by it. The bitter part. Time happens. More time. Maybe even more time. Then the sweet. Sometimes the sweet is right along with the bitter but sometimes you don’t taste it for years. But there is always some sweet in the bitter. And the sweet is after the bitter. It never comes first. So the sweet lingers longer. Savor the sweet. Grow from the bitter. Life is richer because it is filled with both.
Filed under Live the Art of Life | Comment (0)Training mind or body?
I’m training for a triathlon. It’s in a week and it’s my first one. It’s a 1K swim, 23 mile bike and 4.4 run. I am really excited and a little nervous. Today I went swimming first and then running. It was like a mini practice triathlon by myself. I think a lot when I exercise. It cleans my brain out too. It’s really great. So today I was thinking about getting older. It happened because I’ve noticed that there are a lot of really fit women in this town that are over 40. And a lot of them race. Then I was thinking about how we are created. How when we are young our bodies are sharp. This girl who must have been no more then 16 raced by me this morning on the trail with her extra fit boyfriend. They must have been running a 6:00 minute/mile pace. It got me thinking more about how much our young bodies are capable of. That girl hadn’t endured the stress of years yet. The babies. The aging bones and slowing down of body. I envied her. Then I thought back to a woman I saw at the pool earlier after my swim. Toned back and avid swimmer. She was 40 at least. And it all got me thinking. As we age, we lose in body, but we gain in mind. The women that are fast at the races are normally not the girls in their 20’s. It’s the 30’s and 40’s who are fast. And it’s not because of their bodies. It is because of their minds. They race fast because they believe they can. They are older and wiser and have learned that they can hurt, and run and be in pain and keep on and finish strong. (I’m not saying that girls in their 20’s aren’t fast, they are amazingly fast, and if they put their mind to it they can run faster because of a young body and strong mind) But what I am saying is that anyone has an edge on life if their mind is strong. If you believe you can, you can. There is only so much we can do to keep our bodies strong. (And I recommend doing whatever you can for as long as you can) But just as important is the exercise of the mind. Keep it sharp. You are capable of doing so much more than you know. If your mind believes it, you can do it. Aging is a trade off. As you age, you lose in body but you gain in mind. Work hard to tone your body but be grateful for the years that you have been given, and remember that they are a gift to you from the Universe.
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