Remembering Where You Came From

My clients and friends, the Weaver and Jongerius families, were kind enough to let me stay over at Clearwater Beach with them while we awaited coming to Tri Camp in Sarasota Florida with Heather and Todd Gollnick. When I'm with this group I'm always reminded of where I came from. They are from my home town, Sheldon , IA, and hearing news from home and names of old friends in the conversations gives me a bit of peace. Remembering where and I came from and what has made me who I am - and that the person I am is OK is just plain nice.

Lately I've felt a bit in a funk. No goofing around, no dancing, just not being me. It's strange but as I flew in yesterday Katie made the observation that I was about 40% of myself. Today after some good sleep we went for a ride with Mike (Kate's Dad) around the neighborhood. It was AWESOME to get outside and just roll. I haven't enjoyed my bike as much lately and it was just fun again. We also walked down to the beach in full wetsuit and goggles all the way through the neighborhood and it was just fun to be funny and get the looks from all the local folks. We went for a short swim and joked (kinda) about swimming with sharks and laughed at our fear while out there. Coming back in we caught a couple nice waves - body surfing !! We laughed and just plain had FUN- weird that triathlon would be FUN - what's that? All of this was wonderful and just reminded me how we all need to do things with JOY and getting such a gift from God , the ability to do triathlons, is special and should be filled with laughter, fun and JOY!

This all sunk in when we were back in the house and Bonnie (Kate's mom) and I were talking about some old school friends like Tim Blankers which reminded me of other great friends and a whole group of guys and gals that loved me for exactly what I was and always reminded me to do the same. We also talked about an old family friend of ours who had recently passed but it also brought back memories of simpler times, less stress and pure joy! Northwest Iowa is a special place and I feel I need to bring myself back there (in my heart and head) more often to find a place of peace and enjoyment of old memories and memories yet to come.

Ok OK OK we also had an absolutely wonderful time so far at camp and I see the fun the groups having, the wonderful hosts we have in the Gollnicks and all the great potential for joy in our small group. Riding and running in shorts, doing run drills in GRASS , and enjoying sprinkles just to cool off - who can't enjoy that in MARCH?

I can't wait to go home and share some good energy with my family and see and feel the JOY with them as well.

Katie asked me if I was up to 110% yet and I have to say - YES!!