Wednesday, December 29, 2010

365 steps.....


365 Steps....

Today is another step. 363 have been taken this year. Two more to go till....

As I take time to reflect on those 363 steps I stop all this is trying to interfere with the moment. I add up my running miles for the year and find that my footsteps have taken me over 1,700 miles and to some very interesting places. I am now closer to the half way point…..of my third circumnavigation of the earth….by foot.


We all have a personal highlight reel for the past twelve months of our existence. It is our natural tendency to sit back and recall all those great and wonderful moments in our year...our 365 steps...that quickly jump to the front of our personal queue. Our great finishes in our 10k's or marathons as well as those strong 100 mile century bike races. Or simply quite walks in the forest or park.

We also smile when we wallow in our personal or professional accomplishments. Relationships maintained or enhanced, children guided thru life's wickets & thickets, and a career or job maintained in the toughest of times.

I smile my own little smile as I think of my personal ledger of my 363 steps. I first think of so many of you who shared those steps with me. Those days...those hours...those minutes we have run...ridden...walked and crawled over all manners of mountains to the flaming sand hills of a sultry North Carolina summer together.

On a rainy day in June my teammates-Team Little Guy (
www.TeamLittleGuy.com) finished a ride that touched all the military bases in NC. It was an amazing 230 mile journey that ended at Camp Lejeune--where we presented a check for $178,000 to the Wounded Warriors organization. So many people so generously donated to this wonderful organization. So many will benefit. I will never forget those days.

Yet not all of those steps were glorious or fun filled. There were moments of sadness and disappointment that lined the asphalt where some of my steps landed. Yet, like all of you, decisions needed to be made about those moments that took us to the deep and dark bottom of our valleys. Arms needed to reach high for the ledge above in order to pull that shoe stuck in the morass below.

Yet somehow we found the will to find the strength and desire to reach for that plateau again. We learned from the pratfalls and pitfalls along our chosen paths. We sucked it up and pushed forward. No regrets along the way. It was not easy. It never is. Yet life’s greatest moments come from the strength gathered from those wicked places.

I found the greatest of nature in the wilds of Banff National Park in Canada. We hiked thru snowfields and became one in nature. I also admired a small flower bed hidden amongst the masses in downtown Shanghai. Its beauty radiated thru the concrete urban jungle. Large or small…. nature rules the earth where we are but temporary tenants, who must water, care and love our patch of life.

I smile again as I think of all my steps. However, those steps are now finished. I close that chapter and look toward the bend in the road that will bring 2011 and 365 more steps and paths to follow.

I will watch for all of you as we cross paths and share tall tales and the fruit of the vine together. I am blessed to have so many wonderful friends & I look forward the new friendships that await. Run & ride well my friends as you live your life to the fullest!

Y'all….Make Dust!


Bubba….

2 comments:

  1. Bubba, very nice indeed! Way to make dust! I have noticed since I haven't read your prose in a long time that it is more poetic or waxing philosophically. Very nice writing my friend!

    I found we share something else besides the beginning of CVRT off of the dead list. We ride! Since the days of CVRT I have re-engrossed myself in the cycling lifestyle and am better for it. I still strugle with weight issues, but I enjoy my Caloi and my litespeed (my wife won't let me use the Trek MTB anylonger cuz I kept getting hurt, but I still enjoyed it also :-) Team little guy looks really cool I will read up on it later. I've been riding with Team Cycle-Logic for years www.cycle-logic.net in Texas. Thanks for sharing Bubba let's continue making dust!

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  2. Thanks my friend! Great to hear from you!! Ah yes the CVRT days. Good that FB has brought so many of us back together again. Please do consider wrting a "guest blog" for us!

    A great 2011 to you as you ride strong and if you are ever in the Winston-Salem area let me know!!

    Bubba....:)

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