Resolution Realized

I did it.

After years of thinking about, wanting to, and planning to, I took action.

I joined a gym.

And not only did I join the gym, I am loving the gym.

As a motivational teacher and coach, I love helping others create change in their world. I'm a fabulous guide, cheerleader, support person. And yet this one little area of my life kept being neglected: exercising my own body.

I could rationalize that I wasn't in too bad a shape: I walk regularly. I eat well most of the time. But I could feel my body wanting to move, to stretch, to exercise regularly.

So I found the perfect motivation.

I made a bet with my sister.

My sister, Christy, and I are only fifteen months apart. We spent our childhood competing against each other in equestrian events. That deep-seated sister-rivalry was the perfect kick in the pants to get me to the gym.

Around New Year's Eve I asked Christy if she wanted to play a game with me.

She agreed, and we started creating the game: To see who could join a gym faster. Or who could work out the most times a week.

Then our mom, who knows us both well and is wise in her ways, said, Nope, the game is to see who sustains going to the gym over time.

Note that she was the only one in the family who goes to the gym regularly, and also rides horses twice a week. So she got to make up the main rule of the game.

I joined a gym first, but Christy, who lives outside of Atlanta, is not far behind.

What I didn't expect about this friendly contest was how much I would love it.

I joined with my friend, T, who knows all about the various machines animals that populate a gym.  She showed me the care and feeding of each different machine so I could use them properly.

Being on the elliptical is like flying (an elliptical is a cross between a treadmill and a stair master.) I like seeing how my strength grows. Lifting weights and running have motivated me to do yoga, too.

And I love that the machines in the gym I joined are purple.


Yesterday I worked out by myself for the first time, and that was a milestone. It is exciting to go someplace and feel the motivation and commitment of others, and to feel my own inner athlete emerging, ready to run longer, lift more, and stretch farther.

Thanks to T and Christy and mom for your most perfect butt-kicking support!

A New Year's Eve Revelation

Last night God winked at me.

Literally.

It was New Year's eve and I was wandering around the zocalo (main square) in Oaxaca, Mexico with my mom, sister, and Raven. The plaza was a beehive of  over-sugared children, dancing clowns, delighted, wide-eyed tourists, teenaged kissing locals, and ubiquitous vendors selling cotton candy, balloons, and flashy light plastic swords.

Standing in the center of all of this happy chaos stood God.

Well, God posing as a very inebriated man.

Two stories before I get to the sacred, drunken wink:

I knew it was God because of Joan of Arcadia, a television show Arielle turned me on to a couple of years ago.

In each episode Joan (of Arcadia, CA) is given tasks by God to complete. Joan is a teenage girl, so she is less than thrilled by God's attention and requests, as they 1. often get in the way of her social schedule and 2. have her doing nonsensical or not-so-popular things like joining the chess club. Sometimes Joan gets to see the greater Divine wisdom behind her appointed tasks, sometimes she doesn't.

The other cool thing about the show is that God likes to surprise Joan by wearing different clothes during revelatory visits. Sometimes God is the janitor at Joan's school, sometimes God is the homeless woman on the side of the street, sometimes the kid at the playground.

You just never know where the Creator will turn up next.

The second story (greatly shortened and slightly Pixie-ized) is about a man in India who loses everything and winds up sitting in a drunken stupor by the Ganges River. Someone mistakes him for a sadhu (a wandering mystic), someone else points him out as a wise person, and like a game of telephone there are soon crowds of people around this man, who becomes known for his amazing capacity to hold liquor and deliver wise, pithy statements. Some of his followers become enlightened.

Question of the story: Does it matter how one becomes enlightened?

Okay, back to my wink from God on New Year's Eve in Oaxaca.

Baggy, stained pants. Einstein wild hair. Planted with flat feet in the middle of the path, teetering slightly.

My brain said, "Avoid." My heart said, "Engage."

So as I passed this out-of-place stranger I turned and offered him a smile and an open heart.

That's when he sunbeamed me with a thousand-watt smile, and a knowing wink.

And thus God snuck up and reminded me that we are all connected, nothing is separate, and to look for the light in the most unexpected of places.

May we all learn to trust our hearts in 2011….