Three Legged Water Buffalo

The pinnacle of my exercise this weekend, in truth MY ONLY exercise this weekend, was a five-mile walk with my kids and our dog. Given his age (12 years), his leg situation (3 versus 4), and the heat (95ish degrees), the dog was very happy to take a break at our turn around spot and get in the creek. Typically he'll stay at the water's edge for a quick drink. Yesterday I nudged him farther into the water and then convinced him to lie down and relax. I think he could have stayed there for days.

The walk included the stroller and occasional use of the scooter too, but all in all it was a lovely time to spend chatting with my daughter and enjoying some exercise together.

She and I seem to go in waves for our communication. Some weeks we are pretty routine - "What's for dinner?" "Clean your room." "May I watch tv?" "Go play outside." Etc. Some weeks we find ourselves having richer conversations about "stuff". Lately, some of that "stuff" has been about girl drama, and some of it has been about sports. Tonight, those two subjects came to a major intersection as we attended the swim team awards and appreciation banquet. She was disappointed by the imbalance of recognition to some of the faster, stronger swimmers, some of whom also happen to be very "exclusive and rude" to use her descriptors. In order to break it down for me, she drew me a rough diagram of a typical swim meet.

She is not a super fast nor a super strong swimmer. It doesn't come naturally to her like it did for me. Soccer didn't come to her like it did for me. Riding a bike didn't come to her like it did for me. Climbing trees, doing cartwheels, you name it. Pretty much whatever sport I tried growing up came to me with very little effort. For her? Not so much. In the world of summer swim, if you aren't good, you can easily get left on the periphery - poolwise and socially. Tonight I finally told her that I was like one of the girls that she is so frustrated with. Our convo was pretty much like this:

Me: You know, I got those awards. Swimming was easy for me. I didn't have to try very hard, and I was the kid who received a handful of medals every summer anyway. I swam for two summer swim teams, and I received the "Swimmer of the Year" award on each. I swam in All Stars, and I am sure that there were people who were sick of hearing my name called during the awards banquets.

Her: Really?! So you were like (insert name here)? But you were nice of course.

Me: No. I wasn't very nice. I was probably exactly like her.

Her: What? But...

Me: The awards are great for about five minutes immediately after your name is called. After that, they cumulate in a room until you finally put them in a box, and when we bought this house they all went in the trash on the curb. Thinking your better than other people because you can get the awards, or simply restricting your social circle to include only the other people who receive them is a much bigger problem than not getting any.

Her: Wait. You were mean to kids???

Me: Yeah. I was. And of course I can remember a few girls who were older/faster than me and felt like they were mean to me too. But you know what? Now I could care less about how fast I swam, but I really wish that I'd been friendlier and more genuine in caring about people.

Her: Well, I AM a really nice person.

Me: Yes sweetheart, you are, and THAT is why I am so, so proud of you. It took me way too long to figure out just how important that is.

I very much want her to embrace the idea of a lifetime of wellness and physical activity. A big motivator for me to get moving is to be a better role model for her. As I work to do that, I continue to seek out motivation of my own.

Last week I wrote a short post called Your Turn. Far fewer people have read that post in contrast with the others, and I figure that can be attributed to one of two reasons. Either I posted it on a Friday evening and simply, no one was reading, OR, the title of the post scared people. (I am leaning towards believing the second.) BUT.... who doesn't want to click on "Three Legged Water Buffalo"?! And now since you're here, I will be very sneaky (or really not so sneaky)and try to convince you to help me out. Here's the deal-

I have mentioned before that there are a couple of blogs that I read regularly that inspire me and give me some great laughs. What I'm wondering about today is if any of you all would be willing to write about an experience that you've had this year - setting goals, overcoming obstacles, getting in the right frame of mind, hilarious episodes of misadventure, you know - stuff like that. There is no criteria - serious, funny, loaded with positivity, psychological ups and downs associated with health or exercise - I'm just curious to know more about how you're doing, and if you're comfortable, sharing it with the rest of the group. You can either go to the contact page and send it that way, zip me an email, or go to the Mama Gets Moving Facebook page and put it there. Alias optional. :-)

Just as I hope my words and stories provide some kind of guidance and support to my daughter, I can't say enough about how much guidance and support I receive from all of you.