KEEP WINE-ing…

Do you still have your favorite bottle of wine, (or rum, or whisky, whatever floats your boat) for that”special” day.  Maybe even an event to which you’re holding out for.  Theory wise, that sounds good.  We’ve all done that, to some extent.  So, does anyone have that “perfect” time, when their idea comes a- popppin’?  I hope so.  By my observation, though,  sometime that wine has turned to vinegar; and that’s too bad.  Is that what we do with our lives, also?  Is it because we don’t know how we feel about our real lives?  By saying that, I mean do we live each day, hoping something will “miraculously” change our lives, without us actually doing something for that change?  I guess it does happen, like winning the lottery, (somebody has to win, right?  like 10.000.000 to 1!) .  Let’s turn this into my world.  Because my world is fitness, (aside from my head!), I get inquiries about the “fastest way to loose this gut”, or “how do I get big arms for the summer?” even though it’s May.  You have to DO it!  I say live your life, because it’s important that you do.  My thinking, these days, is like today is your last day; ever!  Why not; I had a couple of times these past few years when I thought my day was here, so what happened to that favorite bottle of wine that I was saving?  It wasn’t that important any more.  IT WAS JUST A BOTTLE OF WINE!!!  Tumors, or wine; hummmmm.  Brains, or a nice splash of vino?  Hard to say, huh?

I’m not trying to test anyone’s thinking in these words; I’m just trying to relay what I’m coming across every Monday when I do my volunteer work at UCLA Ronald Regan Hospital.  My duties are me, trying to make the stay of patients a little more comfy, if I might say that.  I asked for the neurological unit; and I’m so glad that did.  I come across so many people that are wearing my shoes from 5 years ago, and also 3 years ago; but you see, I go into a room, and walk right up to the patient, and look at his/her scar, and give a little humor, “WOW, what a great scar”, and they just look look at me, like, “who are YOU”?  Then I point out MY scar, and the conversation starts.  The patients’ face changes, the family, (or whoever is in the room) gets up to engage in the conversation; my life changes, again.  It reminds me, each week, that I wasn’t the only one who went through this; but it sure does humble me, again.  One quick story, then we’ll move on.  Yesterday, I walked into a room, a room that I had visited last week.  There was  a very scared, young man, maybe 20ish, who couldn’t communicate with me last week.  He just looked right through me.  These are tough words for me to write out; have you really had anybody literally look “right through you”?  Last week he did, I had to gather myself, and go to the next room.  This guy had his brain operated on last week, and believe it or not, his scar was twice the size of mine, so yesterday, I applauded it to him, showed him my scar, and told him my story, of just a few years ago, and we laughed!  His family was there, we all got into the story of me being there just a few years ago, and he SMILED!  SMILED!  I told him why I was there; to keep his brain engaged, with games like chess, or checkers, dominoes, poker cards, word games,etc… and you know what?  He mumbled checkers!  His mother just grabbed my arm, it made my day.  He was enjoying his moment, his day.  Do you think he was thinking about a bottle of wine?  Even though communicating was very tough for him, I told him to just take a step, and after that, take another step.  You have to engage, it doesn’t happen by itself; effort, effort, effort!

Let’s take this all back to fitness.  When people ask me, “what’s the fastest….”, I smile.  There is no “fastest”.  It has to become a routine; and as I said previously, it could be 15 minutes, or 30 minutes.  This is not a lot of time.  And forget the mirror, this is about fitness, and in my opinion, the real “Fountain of Youth”.  It doesn’t happen fast, it happens with your commitment.  That commitment comes from your celebration of life TODAY, not another time.  It comes from something you want to do, not from something that you detest.  This is not a complicating game, here.  I’m lucky, and I know it.  I’ve had the life of, let’s just say somewhat “fit living”; and then I get a couple of brain tumors.  Ok. Ok. I get it, but my feet were moving as soon as they could.  I decided that TODAY is the day; do I start later?  NO, today!!

Think about that; when you ask someone for advice, put some thought into what you ask.  Ask about what you know you can do, and DO IT!  (oh, I wish I was Nike!).  Think about your life; how you can make yourself even more happy than how you are today.  Oh, I mean simple things.  How about that nice set of china, use it today for a sandwich!  Why not!?  It’s meant for a special moment, what’s not so special about this moment?  There’s so much out here that we can appreciate, so that means that there’s so much more that we can appreciate TODAY!  Enjoy!  You will enjoy that great bottle of wine, or whisky, or feel special with the good china, (maybe with potato chips!).

I can tell you this, your mood will be on the positive, up side.  A smile to someone else, can make their day.  That’s all it was, for me yesterday, was a smile from someone who is going to make it back into his real world.  I love this life…