Loving Life!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm home from Maui...and to make a long story short, it was amazing! I had many opportunities to enjoy time with Greg as we took in the beauty all around us. In the midst of those precious moments, I experienced a mix of feelings - feelings of joy that I was still happily married to my soul mate and best friend - and feelings of trepidation, with my 50th birthday looming on the horizon. I couldn't help but reflect on how my life has evolved. I can honestly say I am grateful for the good times, and for the times I may have once considered "bad". I know now, that it is during the struggle that I can achieve the greatest growth toward the potential "me" I have experienced glimpses of every now and then. I also realize that growing older is a beautiful opportunity to take the wisdom we have painstakingly earned, and apply it as we face future challenges and continue to choose to grow. It is in that choice that we are blessed.

As I was filling out paperwork to begin a spa day Greg had arranged for my birthday, the receptionist asked if I was celebrating anything special. I replied that it was my 50th birthday - and she said, "How do you do it? You look at least 15 years younger than you are!" She took me by surprise - as I happened to be feeling at least 15 years older - probably due to my struggle to adjust to the time change. As I stumbled over my words to try to accept her compliment, I found myself saying..."I love my life, I guess." I haven't really ever spoken those words out loud to anyone before, but it felt so genuine. Later in the week I ran across a poem that would have better expressed the depth of my feelings in that moment...

Loving This Life...
Is about celebrating the moment
and that we're not guaranteed
or owed another day
and how cool it is that what we hide
can actually be the fuel towards our glory
and that it's not so bad being proven wrong.

Loving This Life...
Is about welcoming the blind turn
and the possibility that
there's no such thing as coincidence
and that empathy is incredibly beautiful
and that it's never too late
to pick up a guitar or a paintbrush
or to make an amend or to make a new friend.

Loving This Life...
Could be about rediscovering
the love of your life
or igniting
a new passion
or shape shifting
from a dreamer into a doer
or savoring the caress
of a love long gone.

Loving This Life...
Means whatever it is you want it to mean
because loving this life is a celebration
of you and your path, of the good and the bad,
of your choice to embrace all that is offered.
Loving This life...
Means never knowing how long we will be permitted to linger
but choosing to live in the moment anyway.

We have so much to celebrate! I look forward to the bright future we share in health and wellness...together.

See you soon as we resume our boot camp workouts on Monday and Wednesday @ 6 am and Saturday @ 7am at Lakeside Lodge!

Warmly,

Jolie