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Health & Fitness

Spinning round and round ...

When was the last time you thought of the earth as spinning? How do we react to our lives when they seem to be spinning?

Summer is now in full swing where I am, complete with a heat wave this week.  Not that I have any right to complain since we have experienced a rather cool summer thus far.  But, since I love the cool weather, yes, I'll still complain.  I know I haven't blogged in some time now.  One would think that since my academic schedule allows me an extra amount of free time in the summer there would be an increase in posts; but one would be wrong.  It's not for a lack of desire, nor a lack of content (my journey continues along with my thoughts and adventures), but rather, a lack of motivation.

I spend most of the academic year in a whirlwind of activities for my schools, not to mention family, publishing, and speaking engagements.  So, along comes summer and the posts slow.  But, one recent summer evening, sitting outside reflecting on life, the stars, my usual daily whirlwind, another thought hit me.  I was watching the night sky for some hours now, noticing the sunset, the movement of the stars and path of the moon, when it hit me ... "we're moving!"  I was sitting still in the same spot (remember, it's summer, I don't have to move), the stars and the sun were all staying in their spots, yet they were all seemingly moving.  Of course our grade school science teaches us that in reality, the earth is in orbit.  Exactly ... "we're moving!"

Those of you accustomed to reading my posts know that I have a few common themes, one of which is "perspective".  I'm always trying to challenge myself to look at life and my surroundings from a different angle to hopefully learn and think differently.  When was the last time you spent a moment reflecting on the reality that we, residents of this planet, are constantly in motion?

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According to my research, the earth is spinning, at the equator, at a speed of roughly 1,000mph!  While at the same time we are spinning, we are moving forward at an estimated speed of 67,000mph!  Wow!  At all times, no matter what we personally are doing, the ground below us is spinning and moving forward.  When was the last time you thought about that?  In reality, we are sitting on a giant ball spinning and moving through space!

Which brings me to my next thought.  As I was contemplating the fact that I am riding upon a giant moving ball, my mind wandered to the tea cups amusement ride (if your mind did the same, way to go!).  As a kid I used to love that ride!  As the cups moved along the track you could independently spin your cup.  So much fun!  Now, as an adult, spinning in that way is not so much fun, although I still do ride the rollercoasters.

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So, that evening, as I'm contemplating the celestial bodies and the movement of the earth, I realized, that like an amusement ride, our ride through life is quite similar.  As a child we tend to enjoy most of the rides, and the scarier the ride the better; the more the ride made your stomach turn the better; the faster the better.  But it seems that as we age, those rides don't excite us, rather, they scare us.  We begin to avoid those areas in our life which seem to be scary, stomach-turning, and fast.  We tend to look for predictable, safe, and slow (I'm not talking about pace, I'm talking about challenges).

I ask you to join me in watching the stars tonight.  And as you do, reflect upon the ride on which we have embarked; the ride on our ball through space, and our ride through the journey of our life.  How do we react to our ride?  Do we fear it; avoid it; raise our hands up; scream; grab the person next to us; simply let ourselves go ... How do you approach this ride?

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