Today marks the 1,095th consecutive day I have shared a post on this blog. It all started with a casual challenge from my friend, Andy Lausier, who suggested that I post something everyday until the end of wrestling season. That challenge led to a personal challenge to go a full year, then to the end of the year, and then to two years. Extending the run to three years, I think became more of a compulsion than a challenge. The central theme of “Carpe Momento” is what I call “well-centered fitness”—i.e., continual, balanced growth, Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially—but a theme of grattitude (an attitude of gratitude) has also emerged. I have written not as an expert, but as a flawed human struggling to better himself. I have written primarily to myself.
It is appropriate that I conclude this run (if it, indeed, concludes), today, on the topic of gratitude. It was gratitude that led to the challenge.
Andy was, at the time, head wrestling coach at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. To raise money for his team, he cycled nearly 1100 miles in seven days to St. Louis, Missouri (the site of the 2017 NCAA Championships). From this journey, he shares his transformation from “have” to “get”—what has evolved into The Grateful Athlete (https://www.thegratefulathlete.com/). I believe Andy’s inspiration carried me three years out of gratitude and a want of gratitude.
I struggle with my grattitude on a daily basis. I love/hate my job. I love/hate living in Oregon. I mostly hate my commute. I have struggled at times to see the Purpose for me and my family moving from Michigan to Oregon eleven years ago. But in this process, I have had frequent encounters with what I perceive to be God and the Universal Christ. I am learning to allow space for the soul (the souls of others, as well as my own) to speak. I am learning to always look forward and into the space between myself and others (and the Universe).
I have struggled with my religion, but I have grown tremendously in my faith. I guess I have grown Spiritually.
I write frequently about exercise. I am, after all, an exercise physiologist. I am an academic, but, moreover, I am a perpetual student. I am often my own study subject. I can’t each what I have not experienced or practiced. In three years, I have experienced much improvement Physically.
Writing with such high frequency has forced me to grow Intellectually. I have often called on friends for topic ideas. There requests frequently stretched and expanded my knowledge.
My greatest struggle is always in the Emotional dimension. As I result, “grattitude” has been a frequent subject. I have sought the grateful energy of others to fuel my own growth in these areas. I am increasingly grateful for the friends I have made and maintained through the decades of my life. Many of these friends are people I have never met face-to-face. Rather they are friends to whom I have been introduced by other friends via social media. There is something Spiritual in this—as I can’t help by conclude that our lives are connected in ways that defy comprehension but demand gratitude. I have learned to shift my mindset from “have” to “get”. I have adopted an attitude of hevel (that everything is meaningless, a mist, a breath). I still have a ways to go, but I guess I have grown Emotionally, too.
Gratitude cannot exist without the Social dimension. I am not much of a people person. Some know this. Most, perhaps, do not. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the people in my life. Believe it or not, I am grateful (or I am at least learning to be grateful) for the people who are the greatest annoyances in my life. It is easy to be grateful for those who clearly benefit us. It is more challenging to receive others with gratitude. It is the challenging people in our day who present the greatest opportunity for growth and grace. These are the people who reveal my own disconnection with the Universe and who bring me back to my Spiritual well-centeredness—to what one might call “love”. So, I guess I have grown Socially.
I honestly don’t know if I can stop writing. (In fact, I am certain that I won’t.) I will need to keep reminding myself to “be your best today; be better tomorrow”. Setting today as a termination day (for this self-imposed challenge of continuing to post daily) is necessary for me to free myself and to allow my own soul space to speak.
I am truly blessed. I am learning to see that blessing even though the most troubling of circumstances. It is through the revelation of my weakness, after all, that I am most driven to change.
Thank you to all who have been with me on this three-year journey. I may or may not see you here tomorrow, but I will, hopefully, see you back here again (on a little less frequent basis).
Be your best today; be better tomorrow. As always….
Carpe momento!