The Concert and The Hike

My daughter, Anna, and I made a last minute trip up to Cherokee this past weekend to see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The concert was great, Joan Jett is still rocking as hard as ever and we had a great time there on Friday night.

The next day we drove over to Bryson City and had breakfast with my great friend Kelly, then drove up to Deek Creek for a hike. This was my first attempt at any long hike since my quest to become, well much thinner and much healthier. We did the Deep Creek, Loop, Indian Creek 4 mile trek. Of course, not doing enough prior research, we took the hardest of the two options for our route. The Deep Creek route to Loop trail was the steepest climb up the mountain but hey it was also the best work out. Three and half miles of the hike were great and actually pretty easy but the half mile straight up loop trail was pretty rough. It was winding and narrow and pretty darn steep. I had to make a few breath catching stops along the way (felt kind of like interval training) but overall we made it in reasonable time. It took us two and half hours total, so basically a little over 35 minutes per mile. Not my usual 10 minute mile on the Advanced Motion Trainer at the gym but these were real mountain peeks and lots of nice photo ops to get in the way.

The best part is the feeling of accomplishment. I spent so many years totally and completely out of shape, now being able to make a semi hard 4 mile hike just plain makes me pretty proud of myself. If you're sitting around on your ass complaining about how everything hurts, then get up, get on a good work out schedule, get those pounds off and stop that pain. My back and knees used to kill me. I honestly couldn't walk 2 city blocks at a medium pace without my hip hurting something awful. I had to walk down steps one at time because my left knee hurt so bad. After and during that 4 mile hike I had zero back, hip or knee pain. My lower back and hip almost never hurt at all and neither do my knees. Six months ago I could have never made that hike but with some hard work on strength, cardio and ab training all that has completely changed.

Last weekend we also did a short but damn hard hike up Grandfather Mountain near Boone, NC. That one was almost 100% a rock climb, not the wall type but it was climbing rocks not up and over dirt and roots. It was rated a hard climb for experienced hikers and it definitely was but it was so much fun. What a view from a mile high, no we didn't climb up that far, probably only about a quarter mile straight up but great nonetheless.

Wonder what we'll come up with for this weekend....

For all of you missing out on life because you hurt, you can't exercise saying you can't is nothing but an excuse, even if you truly believe you can't you can. Get off the pain meds and hit the gym and then the mountains and hills. There is so much beauty you are missing.

Let yourself live, NOW

"My Mom used to say there's a sunrise and a sunset every day and you can choose to be there for it, or you can put yourself in the way of beauty." Wild - Cheryl Strayed.

Never put yourself, your emotional hurt or physical pain in the way of finding the beautiful things in life. Don't use pills, alcohol or excuses to keep yourself from living. Stop waiting to live, stop finding excuses, find yourself and start living now. Remember how precious life is. Remember every one makes mistakes, everyone has regrets. Find your beauty, find your inspiration and get out there and live the life you're meant to live.  

At some point in my life, someone said to me that I was the only person in this world who could make me happy, it was no one else's responsibility to make me happy. Unless I could find my own happiness within myself then I would never find it through someone else. I wish I could remember who said that to me. The best possibility was my Psychology 101 teacher but I'm just not sure. It's the truest thing I've ever heard and it's helped me through many rough times. 

We never know how long we have in this life so stop wasting the time you have. If you're in a bad relationship, either fix it if you can or get out of it if you can't. If you're in a bad job, get out of it. Everything has a fix you just have to want to find it and sometimes make the scarifies to make it happen. 

Sometimes there comes a time we realize that the time has come for us to live for us. Especially women, we raise our kids and take care of our families. Just about the time our kids grow up our parents start needing our help more and more. So take every minute you can to live for you. You worked for it and you earned it, so stop masking your misery and pain with drugs, alcohol or excuses and live every minute you can. Just make time for you and take time to find yourself. 

I was kind of lost for a long time and only over the last few years started finding ME again.  There is another line from the movie Wild that really struck home with me "I was a daughter, then a wife and then a Mom but I was never just me." ( loosely quoted) that's how I've felt most of my life. That feeling was never stronger than early in my marriage, when I couldn't even figure out where I went, much less who I was. I voted for Reagan for his second term for God's sake and didn't vote for Bill Clinton either time, I mean WTF? I would have never done either before marrying a Republican, or now, and losing who I was and what I believed in. Holy shit, I even joined Junior League in Douglasville and played the private school, country club Mom for way too many years. None of that was me, it was me trying be what someone else wanted me to be and what who I had convinced myself I was supposed to be.

I thank God daily that there was obviously a part of the real me still there and that my daughter saw and learned from that part and not the part I was showing to the world. Now I hope she gets out there and lives the life I missed. 

If you're still young and unattached, then get out there and live and be who you are meant to be. Don't wake up 10 or 20 years from now wondering who you are and where YOU went. Don't have to spend 5 or 6 years trying to find yourself again 30 years later. Make your changes now, even if others my get hurt. If you don't you'll either regret it later and find yourself having to really work hard to make those changes or feel so stuck you don't know which way to go. 

Most importantly, be who you are not who someone thinks you should be. If you aren't sure who you are figure it out before getting stuck in a bad relationship and wasting years before you figure it out. If who your are with is constantly criticizing you and trying to change you, they are not the one for you. The one for you will love for exactly who you are. 

I'm lucky so far in that I've been able to return to the real me without wrecking my whole life but who knows what lies ahead. 

Just to clarify the change in blog focus, I'm not playing much poker right now. This time I truly have lost that lovin' feeling so this blog will likely be taking another direction for awhile. Poker was a catalyst for finding me again and I'll always be thankful for finding it at a time I needed something most.