The other day I saw the most remarkable thing. Let me digress...When I was young I learned to surf in Hawaii. To be out on the water, just you and a large board and waves that break over you like thunder is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. It's pure freedom...everybody should experience it at least once . My son inherited my love of the sea and when he's out here he plays in the waves every chance he can. As I type my husband , son Alex and his girlfriend are out enjoying a particularly amazing set! We've been here in San Diego celebrating the wedding of my nephew and his high school sweetheart and the waves have been fabulous everyday. Pure unadulterated bliss!
When I was out taking a walk on Friday, I saw a large group of surf instructors and a ton of volunteers out on the beach. That's not unusual...what was different were the vast number of completely disabled veterans in wheelchairs. Then, I saw the instructors and volunteers helping them out to the ocean and on to surfboards.They took them way out into the wave sets. Then I watched in amazement as they helped each one have the joy of riding in! I was completely blown away. These guys came in and everyone cheered and clapped. There were double amputees, quadriplegics, PTSD victims..you name it they were out there experiencing the ocean with the help of those dedicated volunteers.
I stood there with tears rolling down my cheeks and then marched off to find out who was in charge. It turns out that the program was sponsored by my favorite surf shop in La Jolla- The Surf Divas www.surfdiva.com who run the best surfing school in town. I spoke with the owner of the school and told her that over the next year, I'm getting back in the water and I will be there next year ready and willing to assist.
The takeaway? My clients are screwed and I say that lovingly but I really mean it. I'm screwed... No more excuses. So many of us take our bodies for granted. We abuse them, eat the wrong foods, smoke too much, drink too much and have way to many excuses to not exercise. Watching this really drove home to me just how lucky so many of us are. We've got our health...hell most of us have all of our limbs and we don't even try to move them. I hear so many excuses not to and I've used all of the same ones myself. We're too tired , to busy...the list goes on. If you've got all your limbs you've really got no excuse. Believe me...the men and women I just saw would give anything to have theirs back. Given that they lost theirs in service to us i truly believe that we might owe it to them to make sure that it wasn't in vain.
Here's a link to a wonderful news clip! http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/09/16/clinic-introduces-wounded-vets-to-adaptive-sports/#axzz2fCig2Ris
