Sunday Celebration...Living in the moment and enjoy the journey!

Pick the day.  Enjoy it - to the hilt.

 The day as it comes. People as they come... \The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present, and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

This morning as I arose from sleeping in--yes I actually stayed in bed until at least 9:30 am-I came upstairs from the "Love Shack" and Big Daddy was watching his usual ESPN.

I personally had watched and listened to all the basketball updates I could stand so I said, "Can we please watch 278---Oprah Winfrey Channel was having a Dr. Phil biggest loser style contest and it definitely looked to be more entertaining than ESPN basketball updates.

Just as Big Daddy was about to change the channel, "He" appeared on the screen.

A young man lifting himself by his arm nubs doing pull-ups.  I looked at Big Daddy and said, "Well I guess I want to see his story, "  and thus we watched as I heated up a cup of coffee and needless to say, "It was exactly what I needed to see this morning.'  Isn't it funny how these kind of things happen.

The story began with Kyle, a college wrestler who was born with no hands and only partial arms.  He has no legs, only partial thighs and yet the there  was Kyle beating strong young men who were bigger than himself.  It was an amazing story about the tenacity of the human spirit.  Kyle said, "My parents never made life easy for me, but supported me as I figured out how to do things."
The story continued as Kyle talked about his career as a "motivational speaker."  He said something to the effect of "I felt like a phony standing there being positive, because I didn't always feel that ways."  I stopped to listen and he continued his story, "One day I was on a plane and ran upon two service men who had been badly burned in Iraq.  The men spoke to him and thanked him for saving their life.  He stated he was puzzled at first, but then they said, "We had made a suicide pact and one the same day we were to actually follow through, we saw a story about you on ESPN and we agreed that we could live."

Kyle teared up because he stated it was a pivotal moment in his life.

Fast forward, we find Kyle standing at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  He along with a group of people actually climbed to the peak.  He crawled, climbed and rolled his way along barrier, down steep embankments and up mountain passes without the aid of hands or feet.  As he reached the top, a moment of celebration ended with a moment of solitude as Kyle emptied out the ashes of a fallen soldier on the peak as tears welled in his eyes.

As the story ended, Kyle's last words were, "I realized on this journey that often the thing that I spend the most time on and did so on this trip was, worrying about how far I still have to go...about the future...about how I'm going to get there.  I do this instead of looking at where I've been, how far I've come or living in the present moment.  It seems I've spent alot my life doing just that........."  and his story ended.

I was left to wonder how often I have done the same.  I try hard these days to live in the present, to not get into the hamster wheel worrying about tomorrow and the next day.  I don't always succeed and I don't always allow myself to accomplish this....

but I'm trying to learn the tools to living this a bit more every day.

Kyle changed me this morning and just as I was thinking about his effect on me, I hit upon a fitness blog which led to a face book page where the following quote jumped out at me...

"The Reason People give up so easily is because they are looking at how far they have to go...instead of looking at how far they have come."

And so....I got it today.....and I realized...

I'm better today than I was yesterday..

and

yes even though I've spent alot of time trying to get somewhere...

for today..

just today...

the message of the Universe for me is this....

at the end of the day

"look at where I've been and enjoy this adventure called life....take it as it comes and celebrate having another day....whatever it brings."

As the sun sets this afternoon, may we all allow those last few moments of sun rays to remind us,

not of where we are going,

but

of where we have been,

how we have been changed,

how we have changed another......

and

may we be born anew for another new day to come.

Blessings to all of you this morning

and

thank you Kyle

for changing my outlook this morning.

(((HUGS and Sunday blessings)))