Words for the Day

Courage. Strength. Discipline. Words to focus on as I embark upon the last stage of the Tjejklassik, and what I feel, will be the hardest stage thus far. The weather and minimal amount of snow in Stockholm has not been exceptionally kind for preparations and training for a cross-country skiing event. I've done the best I could to prepare, even making a couple of road trips north in search of snow. Now it's just to relax and try to enjoy the day tomorrow. 

Many people have told me with confidence that I will "klara det," or in English, complete it. Meaning the race. I have to trust them and hope for the best. And I do think that I will, in fact, finish the race. I just know it is going to be challenging, especially given what little experience I have with cross-country skiing. 

But when I think of the sense of accomplishment I already feel from the previous stages I've completed: the Tjejvättern, 100km bike race, the Vansbro Swim, 1km in ice cold open water, and the Lidingö Tjejloppet, 10km run, I already feel like I've achieved the greatest goal. That goal being to go above and beyond what I thought I could do. To push myself to limits I thought were impossible. This past year has shown me how much strength, and guts, I truly have. 

So whatever happens tomorrow, here's to a great experience and a day of true fun and adventure!

Skåll!!! (Och välkommen till Sverige!)

(Cheers! And welcome to Sweden! 

Day 364: A Sense of Strength

Typing "Day 364" seems so surreal to me. Surreal in the sense that an entire year has nearly passed by. Surreal in the sense that I have so far succeeded in what I set out to do, which was to find and blog about something happy or positive, every day, for one full year. It has been both joyful and tearful, both amazingly incredible and terribly trying, and it has been one of the most valuable things that I have committed to in my life. Just last night I was reflecting over dinner with my husband on how amazing it feels to have succeeded in, not only finding something happy or positive every single day for the past year, but in succeeding to post every single day despite the days I found it the most difficult to stick to it.

Just last night over dinner I was discussing some of the challenges I experienced during the past year. One evening, toward the beginning of my project, I had started writing my post and it was basically complete, I only needed to review and edit it a bit. However I completely forgot about it and went to bed. I had just turned by bedside lamp out when it hit me like flaming arrow in the bum. I jumped out of bed in a panic and ran to the computer, practically screaming as I went that I'd forgotten to complete my post. It was eleven p.m. Thankfully I still had time to complete it and post it before the stroke of midnight. That was a stressful evening but it taught me a valuable lesson too and that was to complete my work before I start to play.

Commitment is a powerful thing. Yes, it may have been challenging at times to blog every single day but I can guarantee that my sticking to my word, no matter what the circumstances and no matter how I was feeling each day, has given me a sense of strength that goes well beyond the strength that any physical training I've done has provided and this inner strength is something that I will be able to carry with me forever. With continued stretching and practice each day, this strength will be my companion for the rest of my life. My commitment to one tiny little year in the grand scheme of my life has shown me that anything is possible if I only set my mind to it.

I will say that it has taken tremendous discipline. And I will say that, though I learned a great deal of discipline from all of my many years of training as a dancer, discipline, if not used, begins to atrophy just like our physical muscles. We must use and train our physical as well as our mental muscles to keep them strong. It takes work and it takes sacrifice but the end result is completely worth the effort, I promise whole-heartedly.

Posing in my tap, cat costume when I was around 9 years old. 

Keep training your "muscles"... the pay off will be worth it in the end!