Important things that aren't things.

One of my favorite quotes. 

This is about to be super intense for a bit, and I hope this really evokes your heart into some self-reflection and thankfulness. I know this is a health blog, but I am going to get real for a second. Health is not about being built like a super model, giving yourself guilt trips over eating a cookie, or thinking about how fat you are every time you look in the mirror. This life is much bigger than you and fitting into a size 4 pair of skinny jeans. Quit investing so much of your brain power into your thighs and spend a little more time invested in the people around you. I spend a lot of time with elderly people, and I can tell you this. I have no clue what their body looked like when they were 30, all I see is the people who choose to stay by their side when it life is the hardest. I think that is a pretty good indicator of what matters more.

Side note: Most of you probably still think I work at Toyota as a Health and Fitness specialist, because most normal people stay at a job for more than a month without changing, but I don’t consider myself very normal, so here we are.

 I got a very special opportunity to work at Hospice of Hope in the admissions department. I didn’t know a ton about hospice before I started working there (just what I had read on the internet when I did research); I just knew that terminally ill people got their services when it was close to the end of their life. Well, it is much more than that. In the almost month that I have worked at my new job, I have thought more about the meaning of my life than I ever have. I have the opportunity to talk to people who are living their last days on earth. Some people just want company, and some people want to talk about the meaning of life or give me advice, but I will tell you one thing. I want to LIVE while I can, I want my life to serve a greater purpose than my salad for lunch. My definition of living might be different than yours, but working for a business that helps so many people has that topic on my brain every day. So, here are some of the things I have been weighing on my soul.

1.     I will never take my able body for granted. I think it is natural to forget how blessed we are that we get to walk down the grocery isle or even chew our food. I am going to do every physical challenge I can think of while I still can. I am aware of the fact that I wont be training for ultra marathons when I am 80 years old, but I also want to be able to talk to my great grand kids about the races I have run and the mountains I have climbed. I want to inspire people through my love for running and being active. I want to get people excited about using the body God blessed you with, because I have met a lot of people who would do anything to be able to walk, let alone run. I will love my body in that way every single day it is healthy, because I wake up every day and smile that I get to do something that makes me so happy and makes me feel so powerful.

2.     I also want to be known for more than just being a “runner girl”. Yes, I love being active and it is my passion to help people be healthy, but I crave so much more than that. As I have gotten older and especially within the last year or so, I have felt like I need to be less selfish with my time. I want to be the friend that you can always count on, not only to text you back, but to be there for you when you need me. I want to give away my time like a free sample at Kroger that you actually want. It isn’t always easy for me to be this way, because I seem to like my plate very full of things I want to do, but I am making a conscious effort to make my life more about other people than about myself. I want to make meaningful and positive impacts on people’s lives. Not only that, but I have found the more open I am with my time, the more my heart it changed as well. People’s stories are always so inspiring and humbling.

3.     When you die, you can’t take your stuff with you. Your prized possessions wont be taking care of you when you can’t wipe yourself or make your own food. That will be the people you have spent your whole life investing in. They are what matter more than anything else in this world. Your people. I am so blessed to have so many good ones in my life, but I also make them the more important thing. They make me more happy and at peace in this world than any amount of money or earthly possessions. So next time you look up and realize you haven’t been kind to your loved ones or have been taking them for granted, change it. It’s that simple, because those are the people who are going to be there your whole life. I call them your built-in best friends. I don’t know what I would do without mine. I would be very lost without. P.S. Family doesn’t have to be blood. It is who you choose it to be.

Here are some steps I am taking to get more out of my life and to take steps in a direction I find meaningful:

1.     I am volunteering at my church more. I am getting involved with youth group and spending every Wednesday night with some pretty dang awesome girls. I think they are going to make a huge impact on my heart.

2.     I am doing an ultra-marathon, training, and giving my body lots of love. I tell myself my body is amazing and capable, I feed it healthy food. Most of all, I try to have respect for the only thing that is really mine, which is my body.

3.     I am trying to become a better listener, and more compassionate for people’s problems that I don’t understand and will never understand.

I wake up every morning and decide I am going to change the world. That thought goes through my mind countless times every single day. I want to help people in every single possible way that God has given me. I feel so passionate about it that I can barely stay in my skin when I talk about it. Wake up every morning with conviction in your heart.