Moment

Not all minutes are equal... Many pass us by without a second thought. I wiled about forty-five of them this morning, looking out the window and thinking. A moment is something different, I would like to suggest, that a moment, is a minute that has an impact. A minute that defines the way we are as humans. A moment is something that we will remember indefinitely. 

I do not write about my fitness journey very often, in fact, I never write about it. Part of the reason for that is it is intensely personal, another reason is that there is a lot of noise on social media around fitness and diet. My protocol and philosophy are less interesting, and far more routine than our tik tokking pals, but I have over the last three years, developed a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that has achieved a huge amount of weight loss and some ridiculous strength gains. 

There was a moment during the process that confirmed my desire and also shifted my perspective somewhat. It was, by my definition, a moment and not a minute. It was amidst that great lesson teacher we endured, the covid lockdown. This particular moment was in November 2020. We were locked down, in the hopes of 'saving Christmas.' I am not sure, entirely from what, Christmas needed to be saved. I was outside doing exercise. I had hired a strength coach and the text ‘Surely, we don’t work out in the snow?’ resulted in me walking a weary path down the hillside to the local common where the damp grass and worms awaited me. 

At this point, I reminded myself, it isn’t actually snowing. The clouds are looming grey and full of the stuff, and I will take a bullet for this one, it smells like snow.

Fifty-five minutes later and I am lying flat on my back on a grubby green mat. The workout is over and the snow is falling steadily. At that moment, as I sat up, a snowflake landed in my eye. If the angel of death had appeared and invited me forward with him, I would have chosen death itself. The thing is though, that moment changed my attitude toward my goal. It became surmountable for the moment and switched from an idea to a destination. A snowflake can do that you know!