DO YOUR BEST

Do your best. That's a pretty easy concept. We tell it to our kids all the time when their nerves are frayed and they are scared of something new. We say it to our friends, our spouses, to our neighbors...and for the most part I think we even believe that is all we should expect of other people and we are proud of them when they do. I learned something this morning that I should have learned a long time ago. I'm sitting here in my nice warm house watching the the sun come up over the mountains, the Grand Teton is peeking over the foothills giving me a reminder of the Teton Valley and Targhee where a couple of races and people have changed my life and I'm reading an e-mail from my friend Lisa who is helping me train right now and giving me opportunities to think bigger. Lisa was replying to my thoughts about the snow shoe race yesterday and she says...

"All anyone can or should expect from themselves or others is for them to do their best on that day."

I know. It's nothing new. It's not even terribly original but for some reason it finally sunk in. For me.

I did well yesterday. Snow shoeing up mountains, it turns out, is incredibly challenging. Lisa said that the 10k I did yesterday is about equivalent to an 18 mile run on the road. I believe it. It was tough and my body can sure feel it today. It was so tough that when I saw a man with a camera on top of the mountain taking pictures I realized I had been so focused on just. moving. forward. one. step. at. a. time. that I hadn't even noticed the world around me. After that, I chose to look and and take mental pictures and because I did, today, I am grateful. Grateful for so many things and blessed with even more. My body is strong and my mind is too. The race consisted of a loop. The competitors completed one for the 5k and two for the 10k and let me assure you it was an act of pure will to begin that second loop yesterday. In fact, several people that signed up for the 5k were told that if they finished their 1st loop and wanted to continue, they could. None of them did.

Anyway, it was hard. I wasn't as fast as I hoped but I did my best. I learned some things I can use in the future. I worked to adapt as well as I could for my first ever snow-shoe race. I've come to understand that nothing Lisa is a part of will ever be easy but she will give me the tools and the opportunity to accomplish it if I will work hard and do my best and then she will be proud of me.

Hmmm. That reminds me of another person I've learned about my whole life. Today, I am grateful for HIM.