So, as Thanksgiving month comes to an end, and the world begins anew...
I try to let the awareness of gratitude linger.
As I quickly step into the fast paced world of December, I notice my body, and I smile.
I can never NOT be in awe of an airplane when I see it fly. I am infinitely impressed by man's capacity to innovate and overcome the assumed "normal" laws of physics when I see a plane fly - especially a large plane.
I can never NOT be in awe of science, evolution and whatever GOD you may choose to believe in, when I see our bodies at work.
I take my health, my strength, my body for granted much of the time.
I do - embarrassing as it is to admit.
My sisters obviously come to mind quickly, and the very immediate probability I dodged by random chance or divine intervention.
I am grateful for surviving the probabilities thusfar...
the probabilities of living in a different time when diseases ran rampant and took lives early,
the probabilities of letting one of my stupid teenage decisions to drive when I should not have cost me an ultimate price
the probabilities of so many diseases or events that take lives "early"... as we all have friends who have been affected directly at this point by serious illness or death.
And, I am grateful for the magic of science and the amazing machine that are our bodies...
by my mind's ability to decipher, dream, doubt, decide and drive me...
by my body's ability to persist, to breathe, to walk, to run, to jump, to feel...
Yesterday, I ran in the woods. My body was tired when I started... and yet, 8 miles later having gone up and down hills and pushed for over an hour into pain, my body did not fail me...
As I near 50... and I try to live with greater mindfulness and awareness of all of my blessings...
My ability to be mobile, to be coherent, to be physically independent and to have this amazing, functioning vessel to explore the world... is something that I don't take for granted...
So often I wish I was stronger, fitter, leaner... all generally ego driven, ungrateful, aesthetic details from my vain soul...
Though I do believe that my body speaks of who I am, of my values, of my discipline... and it is also for those reasons that I want to show the world a strong, dedicated, disciplined, grateful man...
And, I realize, the one I fail most often to impress is myself.
Our bodies are truly a miracle.
And a miracle that we should celebrate, protect and enjoy!
I am deeply and humbly grateful for my body, my health, and that of my family... and as I age, I will NOT wish for younger days... I will continue to work hard within the variables that I control - to live healthier and live stronger and wiser every day... and most certainly to live more mindful of my great fortune.
in harmony,
Nestor