Posts
- Tuesday / 3 Miles / Intervals
- Wednesday / 6 Miles / Pace
- Thursday / 3 Miles / Trails
- Friday / 3.1 Miles / Friday Fivek
- Sunday / 15 Miles / Easy
The very first movie I watched when I got my Roku was Happy. It was New Year's Eve 2012. All by myself. It seemed like the perfect way to say good bye to a year full of proverbial trial and tribulation. It turns out, according to the movie, about 50 percent of happiness is genetic (we all know those people who we swear were born in a bad mood...), about 10 percent is linked to our circumstance (job, wealth, ability to survive kind of stuff), and the remaining 40 percent is determined by what we purposely do to make ourselves happier. The movie shows us that we can increase our happiness through activity, compassion, spending time in nature, and bringing variety into our lives. FORTY PERCENT!
I spent the last week with my Momma, and if there's ever someone who takes full advantage of that forty percent statistic, it's her. I credit her with my sanguine disposition as well as my appetite for life. I tend to think I was literally born with it given that the day I was born, my Momma had spent the day hiking through an area in southern Minnesota she calls "God's Country." I wonder if she had known she would be at the hospital later that night giving birth she would have laid off the day hike, but knowing her, probably not!
My intention for this week was joy, and we lived and breathed it! When I moved away from home a dozen years ago, my Momma began a tradition of visiting on my birthday. As I moved further away, the visit stretched out to a whole week, and she also started bringing a niece along with her (just one of the girls at a time). This year was Kiara's year to visit Auntie Kari, and I was excited to share some new experiences with her. Through all our adventures, I tried to focus on the beautiful, joyous happy moments we shared, and soaked up the experiences through their eyes.
We toured a working dairy farm, where I got to hear my Momma recount stories of her childhood summers on her grandparents' on their dairy farm. Her joy at seeing a calf on the day it was born, the smell of silage, and the feeling of a cow licking her with a curious tongue returned her to her childhood. We visited a petting zoo, where I watched with smiles as Kiara fed baby deer from scavenged pellets (too cheap to spend her own quarters on feed!) We ooh'd and aah'd at the finds in The Henry Ford, where our favorite moment was sitting on THE Rosa Parks bus. Kiara has a knack for crime-fighting and aspirations of becoming a K9 Detective, so I lined up a visit to a neighboring county's 911 central dispatch center. She grinned from ear to ear watching my friend Jen take emergency calls from an automobile crash. Another day, we visited the big lake, and I watched from the shore as she jumped through pounding waves and I gave gratitude to be able to give her this kind of a childhood experience. I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat, because I found complete strangers passing on the beach were smiling back at me.
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| Momma & me on the Rosa Parks bus |
But the single most joyous moment for me was running with Kiara in her first 5K race. I was slightly surprised when she said she wanted to do it with me, and suspect she was motivated by my promise that she'd get a dog tag award if she finished (the child is highly motivated by bling of any sort). A whole slew of my friends were there, and I was proud before it even started. The gun went off and she was gone! I sprinted to keep up with her, and kept reminding her to slow it down. I loved hearing her little lungs breathing hard, and she just kept going. As we approached our first big hill on the course, I told her it's okay to walk up hills and she thankfully slowed. I don't think I will ever forget our conversations on that run, me cheering her on, coaching her on technique, her complaining about her legs hurting and how she didn't believe me that this was fun. I laughed as she started fantasizing about what she was going to have for dinner afterward (chicken strips) because that's exactly what I do on my runs! The course was mainly trails, which was so beautiful and as the crowd thinned out, it was just us on the path, sharing this moment together. I told her to save some energy and turn on the gas at the end when everyone was watching, and she did just that, sprinting to the finish!
Take a cue from "Happy" and make the most of what you can with that 40%! Set out every day with the intention to explore, experience new things, spend time in nature, or just play a little! These places are where we find contentment and joy.
You may not be what you think you are,
but what you think, you are.
~Jim Clark
Week Seven's Intention: Routine
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