Beautiful Moments - Part 2
I had a beautiful moment on the morning of Wednesday January 20, 2020, but it almost didn’t happen. When my alarm went off at 0345, my spot in bed was toasty warm, my pillow was cloudy soft, and my beautiful wife was sleeping peacefully next to me. It wasn’t hard for me to come up with a few excuses as to why I should stay in bed.
The day before, I had a hard early morning training session out in the cold garage.
I hadn’t slept great the past two nights.
I…blah, blah, blah…
When I was a kid and woke up not feeling well or unmotivated to go to school, my dad would always say, “Get up and get moving and you’ll start to feel better.” Thirty years later and those words still ring true for me. I dragged my ass out of bed, made my way downstairs, and let Zeus out to go pee while I tied my shoes and wiped the sleep out of my eyes. I warmed up with a mile on the Assault bike, nailed some front squats and kettlebell swings, and then put on some warm clothes to take Zeus out for a walk around the neighborhood. This whole experience was a beautiful moment.
Zeus’s hip pain and declining mobility over the last month or so has really made me grateful for the times I can take him for a walk. We headed out the door into the crisp 30 F darkness around 0440. My legs were shaking from my workout and, despite a thin film of sweat beneath my layers of clothing, my body heat was still running on high. Zeus walked around like a healthy young pup on this particular morning, sniffing every street sign, stick, and abandoned dog poop on our route. The neighborhood was quiet and still, and I tried to take it all in as I walked. Many people aren’t fortunate enough to live in a safe neighborhood with nice sidewalks and good folks, and I try to keep that in mind, knowing how lucky I got to arrive at this point in my life and how many little things had to go just right and how many people had to bend over backwards for me to make it here.
My coworkers know that I get to the office around 0600, which is pretty early for most people. What they don’t know is that by the time they see me, I’ve already lifted, done cardio, or both, on most days. I don’t divulge the fact that I’m a crazy person and have already trained that morning for a couple of reasons.
No one really cares and it doesn’t matter.
Getting out of bed is not a sacrifice, it’s a privilege. My strong and healthy body is an absolute gift, and getting to wake up, train, and experience moments like the one I’m writing about here is a true blessing. Sometimes I think about how, when I get old, I will probably look back and think about how I would give anything to have one more morning where I could wake up early, squat my ass off, and take Zeus for a walk with barely a care in the world.
There is something very special about being up early, knowing that you got your day started right and are already ahead of those who decided to hit the snooze button and stay in bed. When I was growing up, my buddy Hammer’s dad, Mike, used to always be up super early, out in the garage before the sun came up tinkering with one thing or another and enjoying the still of the morning. Hammer and I couldn’t fathom why someone would wake up so early, especially on a Saturday. “It’s the best part of the day. The assholes aren’t awake yet,” Mike would tell us. It took me years to understand that Mike was absolutely right.
I’d love to hear about a beautiful moment you had recently. It can be the simplest thing in the world that no one else will understand. Your beautiful moments are yours, and that is, perhaps, the best part.