Tag Archives: gratitude

Pass, Set, Hit, Repeat… Repeat. 

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7

November Gratitude Shorts, Day 9

Hallelujah for volleyball!!

It started 30 years ago, in 7th grade, when Mrs. Walton started a girls’ volleyball club, I think.  Then I seem to recall playing on an actual middle school team, against other schools?  We wore orange basketball uniforms–so ugly, but I didn’t care!  I was hooked.

The summer before high school I stalked the varsity coach, Bubba, and called him at home, requesting (begging) to attend volleyball camp, which incoming freshman usually weren’t allowed to do. I knew I needed the extra training to make the team.

Each year I made the team again, to my great relief and pride.  I worked exponentially harder at volleyball than at any subject in school. Maybe I felt I had something to prove, but I also just loved the game. It taught me discipline, focus, teamwork, time management, and perseverance (I think we never had a winning season).

But it was college where all that persistence really paid off. Growing up in mostly white, suburban Denver, I had no idea that volleyball was such an Asian thing. I got to Northwestern and hey, all these Chinese and Korean kids played!  That’s how I made friends with my husband, the tall, smiley Chinese guy.  We played all through college and med school. I realize now it’s one of the few things we love in common.

I had forgotten most of this over the years–residency, new jobs, kids, work…work, kids–until this fall, when our local Jewish Community Center started a club on Monday nights. We have played the last three weeks and I’m proud to say that though rusty, my skills and court sense remain intact!

The best part has been reconnecting with our younger selves. And, I have to say, he’s definitely still got it–just as sexy on the court now as 20 years ago. I love getting the perfect pass, setting him up, and watching him leap, then slam it with authority to the floor on the other side.   It’s pretty cool when he sets to me, too, and it helps that the net is set at women’s regulation height.

Our son, who is twelve, has started to play. I see in him his dad’s natural reflexes and talent for the game, and I look forward to growing that.  Our daughter, too small to play with adults yet, seems happy to read _Harry Potter_ for the hour each week, so this could easily become a weekly family routine, yay!

I never thought I would have a chance at this age, in this stage if life, to share this love again with not only the hubs, but with the kids, too. Thank you, Mrs. Walton!  Thank you, Bubba!  Thank you, Barbara, Jennifer, and Lisa, the coaches who never cut me from the team!  Thank you, husband, for showing up and playing with joy and abandon!  And thank you, JCC, for relighting this old flame. If I take care of myself right, by the time I die, I might have played for most of my life. I will feel nothing but gratitude for that.

Citius, Altius, Fortius!

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November Gratitude Shorts, Day 8

Every day I live in awe of the astounding miracle that is the human body. It is the quintessential integrated machine.   Almost every part serves a unique and essential purpose in normal daily function, and the parameters for such function are incredibly narrow.  But take something out, wound something else, or trash multiple systems at once, and the whole assembly adapts around the insults, automatically, without any action or awareness on our part.  The body’s compensatory mechanisms exemplify the resilience and tenacity of nature, no doubt about it.

Tonight I’m simply awestruck by how far we can push those parameters of normal function. I just watched my beloved Denver Broncos lose to the Indianapolis Colts in a nail-biter.  [Really, it could have gone either way (she exclaims wholeheartedly)!] On every play, players collide like oncoming bullet trains.  They dart and cut with the precision of adolescent gazelles.  They launch their bodies several feet, in almost any direction and orientation, in a fraction of a second, chasing the erratic movements of that oddly shaped ball.  They weigh an average of 250 pounds, let’s say, yet they can sprint faster than anyone I know—talk about overcoming inertia!  I remember a video replay this season showing a running back positively defying gravity—bolting full speed while the length of his body made a 30 degree angle with the ground.  And I’m proud when I can hold a side plank for 30 seconds, pfft.  Tonight I saw a defensive back grab and throw Peyton Manning to the ground, where he then skidded about 5 feet.  I mean Peyton is a formidable man, and this guy made him look almost like Raggedy Andy.  How on earth can they perform all these feats, over and over again, and not die?

It’s not just football players (and I know the dark side of football, trust me). I think of Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Dana Torres and others, and I marvel at the human body’s capacity for ‘citius, altius, fortius!’  That Olympic motto of, “Faster, higher, stronger!” calls us to push our outer limits, defy the boundaries of what we think we can do.  I’ve only begun to strengthen my core (hint—it all starts in the glutes, my friends!).  I aspire to my first real chin-up.  I am proud that I can hold my planks strong for 30 seconds, sometimes more!  These athletes inspire me to fuel and train, not just diet and exercise.  I don’t have to be one of them.  I just know I can be like them.  And I thank each and every one of them for showing the rest of us how it’s done.

How Health Begets Health

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19

November Gratitude Shorts, Day 7

Today I really give thanks for my health, and for that of my family.

As the kids and I sat waiting to get their flu vaccines this morning, I heard someone blow their nose. It was that thick mucus blowing that feels, at the same time, both gross and gratifying. I took a deep breath through my unobstructed nostrils and looked happily at my uninfected children.

Lately I’ve had some knee swelling and pain, probably resulting from a bike crash last month and then over-zealous running the following week. It’s slowly improving, but has taken up disproportionate space in my consciousness for a couple of weeks. This morning I forgot how my chronic back and neck pain have drastically improved. The heel pain I’ve had for the past year is 80% better since I started rolling my foot on a golf ball this week. I’m actually healthy, and improving all over the place!  So why do my thoughts circle so much more around what’s wrong than what’s right?  I know the teleological basis for this; it’s more of a rhetorical question.

Whenever a virus knocks me down, I appreciate my health the most. Oh, to breathe through my nose and lay flat without feeling like my head and lungs will at once collapse and explode!  To move between routine activities so effortlessly, rather than like dragging a fifty ton boulder uphill through thick fog!

Muffins, croissants, cupcakes and chai lattes tempted me coyly during our post-shot cafe visit today. Thankfully, my renewed awareness of robust health strengthened my resolve to protect it, and I resisted, this time. So maybe if I practice specific gratitude for my health more often, I will make healthier life choices more easily? Can’t hurt to try!