It's about one word... Health!

I've always been relatively fit and healthy.  I was a picky eater as a kid, until I was enrolled in a british "old school" boarding school. You had no choice but to eat what was put in front of you.  Rubbard stew with custard... so gross!  I went from perhaps scrawny to a more ideal weight.  But it was in my third year "over there" and in my second school that I took up running.  I was dragged out of bed by a dorm mate (and life important friend) at ridiculously early hours of the day to go running.  We ran (with me often in my pyjamas) the grounds of Westonbirt school which were breath taking.  The grounds were an extension of the Westonbirt National Arboretum,  and I truly believe were magical in soul building.  While I couldn't have gotten out of bed at that hour without being forced by Susie, I did spend my days in class breathing the energy and sound grounding the morning runs gave me.  The physical Victorian landscape with it's quiet, soft, endless green, and fresh, often foggy air somehow embodied the physical effects that I benefited from.  It really was as if those strong beautiful old trees were passing on their rooted and statured strength to me throughout my school days.

I didn't run again until my late twenties. I was now back in Canada and in the work force and found myself in my beige cubicle down town Ottawa.  I wasn't running but I was active with sport and eating fairly healthy.  I had a friend whom I wanted to help through some turmoil she was working through and remembered the benefits I'd found from tagging (being dragged) along with Susie.  So I found a learn to run 10 k class and sure enough she was game to join me.  Running was back in my life and again for a short while it was a beautiful thing while it lasted.

We all know life is busy.  It can be a juggle.  I can't juggle.  I repeat... I can't juggle.  I've had to consciously learn to relax and be happy with just doing my best, doing what I can and being satisfied with the results.  But I'm not good at that either, and good thing for it.  I don't want to be complacent when it comes to my health.  I've had three people come into my life in the past 6 years and they mean everything to me.  They need and depend on me, as I do them, but selfishly I just want to be with them as long as this life time will let me.  It's never been more apparent to me then now that my health matters.  I feel very fortunate to have come from the family I did.  They promoted healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle as they knew best,  and set the foundation making it easier for me to continue on this path with focus and determination.

In my new found interest in health though, it's that same friend who joined me in that learn to run 10 k class that has paid it forward in a big way.  I believe it was the heart crippling loss of her just 59 year old father a few years back that eventually moved her towards a stronger focus on health.  As I am, she is also motivated by having a house full of loved ones including three young children.  Her focus was healthy eating which initially led her to cut down on meat and dairy and eventually turn towards eating and living a whole foods plant based diet.  The effects are noticeable.  Paying this forward however is not something you can outrightly do.  I believe she knew this.  Her changes were simple and subtle and caught my attention.  Without over sharing she simply responded to my questions.  The journey this has set me on is wonderful.

But it's a journey.  It's a transition.  I've been devouring books and movies and lectures and videos for months now and still I'm learning and moving forward.  And really, I was already well versed on healthy eating.  But there is so much to this journey that I'd never encountered!  I'm excited that I will be able to establish what I'm learning into my girls from a young age.  The troubling part for me is that although I'm constantly hungry for more information, I'm too busy to give it the time I'd like.  I'm working full time at multiple full time jobs!!  The kids, the house, the desk in the beige cubicle.  There aren't enough hours in the day to satiate my current interest in my health.  But!... it's coming along and with an ever loving and supportive husband, I'm feeling the benefits and wishing I had started this journey long ago when I had more time to devote to it.