Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Olympic fever.

Any of you see the Nike commercial during the Olympics??

Well, it entered my subconscious and I've been thinking a lot about greatness lately.  What is greatness?  How do I achieve it?  What does it look like in my life and sphere of influence?  These questions have really been weighing on me.

These are big and tricky questions.  I don't have the answers.  I've just been doing a lot of brainstorming. I've been reflecting on the races that Adam and I have completed this past year.  We now have the title, 'ironman' but does that title make us great?  Perhaps in that area of life but what about the other areas? Greatness as a mother, as a wife, as a friend etc.  Greatness in these areas becomes a little more vague.  There isn't a race to complete and the process is ongoing.  The results can't be measured by a finishing time.  So how are they measured??  Even in my ironman race, the finishing time was awful but I overcame so much to finish, qualifying for a measure of greatness because of the enormity of the task. Also, every athlete knows that greatness isn't achieved in the race, it's achieved in the training.  It's day in and day out, putting in the hours and the time and walking up to that starting line PREPARED.  That is a measure of greatness.

I think it's a case of "Olympic fever".  At least that's what I'm going to label it.  Me and Adam have been such hard core Olympic fans.  We normally watch zero television but we ordered cable just for the Olympics.  Yeah, we're that hard core.  Watching all these athletes compete awakened in me the dreams that I have of being a world class athlete.  But, even my ever encouraging parents had to be realistic when I asked them if they thought I could make it to the Olympics.  My dad smiled and said, "in what event?"  "In triathlon", I responded.  Out of love he resisted bursting out laughing, as we both know that I'm too old to start down that path.  So that left me with a feeling of "then what??"  If not the Olympics, where am I going to find my greatness?

I felt a measure of greatness here.


But that greatness would be empty and short-lived if that's the only area that I felt like I was experiencing greatness.  So here are some of my thoughts...

Greatness is sometimes visible to many, sometimes visible to only yourself and God.  Some of my greatest moments in life had no applause or approval.  My only reward for these quiet acts was a sense of peace and a comfort that I had done something good.

I think greatness involves planning with wisdom and then having the discipline to execute that plan.  Sometimes wise planning requires relying on the wisdom of someone else.  There's no way I could have prepared well for Ironman without a coach.  Other areas of life require relying on the wisdom of others too....like in motherhood.

Greatness sometimes involves doing something different or unusual and it something involves doing something very ordinary.  Some may see greatness in my races and athletic pursuits but I see greatness in a friend of mine who, from my perspective, excels as a mother.  Greatness can be ordinary, or not.

Greatness might have something to do with fulfilling a divine mission.  I believe that God has a plan for our lives. There will be callings that will come to each of us, some 'official', some very unofficial and personal.  When we embrace and fulfill these callings, that is greatness.  Some of these callings will only come into our lives as we have an open mind, are willing and are courageous.

I have wondered whether to continue with this blog.  The only reason I do it is to inspire and help others.  I have a journal and I enjoy writing in it, so that's not why I blog.  I try not to be a prideful boaster, so that's not why I blog.  I love people. I want to do my eensy weensy part to help others, so I figure a blog can help me do a bit of good in the world.  I want others to dream and set goals.  I do not think everyone should do triathlons though.  Two reasons for that:  then the sport would get more competitive (wink, wink) and I would have a hard time getting a top finish AND greatness looks different in every person's life.  What I hope for you is that you will take a look at your life, have a conversation (or many) with God and try to figure out what greatness means for you in your life at this time.  Be open to things you may not have considered.  Be willing to dream. Be willing to do things that are amazing.  Be willing to do things that are simple and receive no applause.  Be willing to be great.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Sometimes mom whines too.

In the past three Saturdays we have biked for over 150 kms as a family.
The first Saturday, we biked from Canmore to Lake Minnewanka to Banff and back.  Wow, the scenery was incredible.  The climb to Lake Minnewanka was challenging, as it was a pretty long uphill but then it was a tonne of fun going back down.  When we asked our kids what their favorite part of that ride was, they said it was the ice cream we had in Banff.  Not the world-class scenery, it was the ice cream.  All right.  At least they appreciate a good Mcdonald's cone.  It did taste pretty amazing but most things do when you've worked up an appetite by exercising outside.





The next Saturday we parked up at Pierce Estate park and biked over to the Stampede grounds, around behind the Talisman Centre and then down to the Glenmore Reservoir and back.  A good reminder that you really haven't seen the beauty that Calgary has to offer until you've hit the trail system.  It is so incredible.




This past Saturday we decided to start from our house and ride over to the Glenmore reservoir and back.  My legs were tired to start with because I had been doing weights all week and had run almost 2 hours the day before.  It was a 58 km loop and as you can imagine, Adam and I end up doing most of the work pulling the tag along bikes.  The kids do pedal but it's kind of a casual rotation of the crank, rather than a real driving push.

As we got closer to the turnaround point, Adam seemed like he wanted to go for the yellow jersey and I had a hard time keeping up.  This annoyed me somewhat, so I may or may not have done some whining about that when we stopped for our snack.  Then Adam noticed that Riley's front tooth was looking gray-ish.  It's been loose for weeks but he has resisted our attempts to let us pull it out because he wanted it to "fall out on it's own."  We've respected his agency, trying to give him control over his own body but we reminded him that the tooth needed to come out.  So he turned away, gave it a pull himself and out flew the tooth into a pile of gravel.  Hmmm....that's great, but now we need to actually find it.

After finding the little item, we headed back.  This time I was determined to win the jersey and asked Adam if Kyla and I could lead.  We make it back to the Ranche (25km) in an hour.  After another snack/washroom break we started on the last short leg home. Adam thought we should loop around to the north bridge but as we started that way I realized my legs were shot and I was officially a whiny momma.  Adam said, "if you stop whining I'll give you a foot rub when we get home."  He also reminded me of the quote by Jeffrey R Holland that I always remind him of when he's the whiny one.  "Nothing is so bad that whining won't make it worse."  My mature little four year old was also buoying me up from behind.  "Mom, don't worry, we're almost there.  Just enjoy it."

Sometimes mom whines too.

Oh and we've decided that we are now the touring Mexicans.