The Tree Whisperer

I have always seen myself as shy, awkward and reclusive. Apparently the world has seen differently. I have reconnected with several people from my teenage years recently and their memory of me is totally different from mine. Descriptions of my personality vary, the only constant has been the length of my legs.

I had lunch earlier today with someone that I hadn't seen in 15 years. It had been more years than that since we had spent any length of time together. That person gave a description of my younger self that was determined and independent and, embarrassingly, love obsessed and of course naive. It's always surprising to me how a person's actions can be seen as so different from what one is actually feeling. I guess 'never let them see you sweat' is more true than I realized. Unless you tell someone that you are uncomfortable, they may never know. This holds true for both physical and mental discomforts.

My Wise Woman of the Day award goes to my chiropractor. Of course she's fabulous, as are all of the women in my life, ... wow. I had never thought of that before. Okay, points to me for surrounding myself with the fabulous. Anyways, I have become more of the person that I want to be because of her. And again, wow, that seems to be my theme for the summer. Surrounding myself with fabulous people that have helped to reshape my self-perception and live my life in a way that I have always hoped for. Best summer ever!

So back to the chiropractor. The back adjustments have made amazing improvements to my endurance. I am now able to do several things in a day that used to take me a week to accomplish. She also has a treadmill available for me, so I now have the most awesome running shoes ever. They have blue stripes and Nimbus 3000 is written in tiny script on the sides. My chiropractor has done wonders for my heart. She keeps setting goals for speed and distance, I keep accomplishing them ahead of schedule. I was telling her how I loved the program she put together for me - simple but effective. She said she pretty much just says to herself at the beginning of each session "How is Honey going to kick butt today?" That doesn't really sound like a mantra assigned to a meek person.

I have many times been inspired by the impassioned stories of other people. Someone describing a favorite hobby, tradition, job, vacation, whatever. Every time it happens I want to go out and have a similar experience. Not that I really want to kill a deer. But listen to a true hunter (not the drunk lazy kind) tell the story of a kill, where they went, tracking the deer, finally finding it and how it looked standing in the trees, how they felt at that moment (usually a bit humble and prayerful), I kind of would like to be along. Or maybe it's that I want to have a chance to nudge the gun in a different direction at the last second.

I'm convinced that simply being passionate about your own life is the key to inspiring others. Everyone wants to love their own life. I think we're all just looking for a way to tell our own story. Obviously I have found one way to do it. I think a person should go out into the world and do things that they want to be able to tell stories about. Strangely, the things that I want most to do in the world are things that I want to keep private for myself. When I'm with other people I love to talk, but I think I may love more hearing their story. Sometimes I feel like a cheerleader to the world, wanting the best for everyone, hoping that they see the best in themselves, hoping that they do the best thing for themselves and for others.

Myself, I could spend a lifetime staring a trees. Not a lot of banter in that. But that's when my moments of being overwhelmed in world happen.
"What did you do today?"
"I sat in a rocking chair on the deck and stared at my garden for an hour."
"So I was hunting the other day..."