Ok, so it's not snowing but....it all starts somewhere, with a choice.

This was taken on my Birthday. Normally just another day and a day usually spent with Steve and the Girls. But this particular Birthday was the day I found out I had cancer.

The day the Endocrinologist I'd seen 4 days before wished he hadn't called me on my Birthday. Good thing was, due to the news I took the day off from work and called Steve and a few friends and started to make some plans. Started thinking.

I took that news, after a few good tears and conversations, to reflect and  realize that my life is very important to me. My goals and plans, and accomplishments are really a huge part of what makes me "tick". Life is, really, very short. If it's a 100 days or a 100 years, it really is short. So, it's important to live your life the way it is important to you. Don't waste it! Simply put, don't wait for someone else to make you happy. Don't sit and wait for others to make your fun. Be honest about what you really want. It is different for most everyone.

For me, one of the most important parts of my life have come from what I've learned from sport (or sports). I define myself as an athlete. I look at a lot of people as athletes- an athlete: a person who participates regularly in a sport. That doesn't mean you have to be professional or a certain level-just that you find enough satisfaction in a sport to do it regularly. To me-that defines fitness. You care enough about yourself to set time a side consistently to work out. Take your dog for a walk, ski, ride a bike, life weights in a gym. yoga, or any other activity in the name of a sport. Ok-golf, too.

So one of the first things I did, after feeling slightly sorry for myself was to take my Girls into the woods and hike. It was there that I looked on my life and smiled. I have lived my life the way I want to. Not always perfect-of course. Not always selflessly, but trying to live it in a way where on the last day of my life I can say that I did and enjoyed the things I set out to accomplish and also have no regrets.

Since that Birthday, I have had surgery to remove the cancerous making Thyroid, and had radioactive treatment and some blood tests. The results are not fully in but I intend to live as much of my life as I always have. Fully. I intend to enjoy my family, my friends, my job (related to sports), and the things I do-both in the past and  the future. I'm not done and I feel this is the key ingredient to maximizing the fun in life. The fun in sport.

Probably wondering why this is coming now-several months  later? Well, I have extra time on my hands to think about my life and make some changes. I just had hip surgery- left over form the accident. Longer story for another time. I can't ride right now-well, OK, I actually can ride for 10 min twice a day on a trainer. That's OK by me-it's something and I have a choice-as we all have choices. Sometimes the choice is ice cream and jellybeans and sometimes it's okra and brussle sprouts. Right now it's the latter. But... it is a choice. I can do with that choice as I want, and I want to get better.

It may be several months before I can hike into the mountains with the dogs and Steve and my friends. It may be months before I can compete in a Brevet put on by RMCC http://www.rmccrides.com/brevets.htm.    But I will do these things again and with a new appreciation. I will because when I'm done with the cancer and done with all of the accident related injuries and surgeries, I will have a better understanding of myself. I will look at my new goals with renewed interest because I will have accomplished them with the knowledge I learned from my past accomplishments.

This is what sport can do for you. This is what having been or being an athlete can do for you. It-sport, can teach us to get through life and of life's challenges, like that of a 100 mile running race, a 600KM Brevet, or a climb on a big mountain. Life and sport go together like nothing else I know.