Sweet Days of Summer

Welcome to the official start of summer.  Today also marks the longest day of sunlight, of the year.  With temperatures in the 90s nearly every day, here in sunny (and rainy) south Florida, its hard to believe it wasn’t summer until now.  I haven’t yet figured out exactly how I will celebrate this day, but celebrate it, I will.  The saddest part, however, is that “every new beginning is some other beginning’s end,” and I LIVE for spring, so I am sad to see it end.  But a new beginning it is and there is NOTHING bad about this season.  I love the laid back feeling of summer that I grew up on, that always returns this time of year.  Hearing children play during the day when they would otherwise be in school, snacking on the bounty of fruits we talked about recently, shorts, swimming, thunderstorms and the smell of Jasmine in the air–these all bring me a sense of happiness and peace.

Yesterday, Mitch and I attended Howard Goldman’s funeral and his son, Ron, did a fantastic job of eulogizing his very unique and quirky dad.  He talked of his day making his own distilled water, one drop at a time, 40 years ago when everyone else was content drinking tap water.  He talked of how his dad would run on the boardwalk in Long Beach, New York, even in the winter, finishing with headstands in his bikini and then a jump in the frigid ocean, while passebys shook their heads as if to say “what a nut,” and a nut he was!   He also read the most touching story, an online book, put together by a past  member of the gym that wanted to thank him for his most instrumental role in  motivating her to eventually lose 92 pounds.  Carmen met Howard in 2005 when she was a new member and couldn’t walk for more than a few minutes on the treadmill.  She wrote about how he was her hero, as he was patient and helped motivate her to go from barely walking to running 26.2 marathons.  She had no idea Howard was sick when she put together the book with wonderful before and after pictures.  Ron hoped to read it to his dad when he got better, but instead it was read in his memory.  It was a remarkable and inspiring  story, and Howard, who was as Ron said so well, SINGLE-MINDED, would have felt his life had been worth it all if  he could know how positively he impacted her.  Crazy and crass that he was, and though I butted heads with him about many things, I have always had a great respect for his passion (and obsession) for health and fitness.  I hope they serve raw and organics where you are, Howard, and I know the great big gym in the sky has already let you “work in.”

Well, we know we can’t disconnect the body from the brain, so I encourage you all to check out the link that Sylna put up in the comment section yesterday.  I clicked in before blogging and love it already!  I will be going back this afternoon to read through much more of it!  It does thrill me to find the first brain rule to be EXERCISE.  It’s hard to believe there was a time when people questioned a mind-body connection!  I am thrilled that Sylna is checking in here at peaceandfitness.com.  She is an incredible woman with so much to offer the world.  This is one woman who though small in stature is HUGE in knowledge and the ability to get people thinking!  She facilitates a wonderful book club as a bonus to our SilverSneakers program at Bally Fitness and trust me, these are not just meetings to discuss books.  They are full blown parties and what goes on at book club, stays at book club.  Sylna, you are quite a little dynamo and I appreciate any input you bring to this site!

Well there are pros and cons to everything and a con to summer is the mosquitos love to breed under my computer.  So I have taken all I can this morning 🙂 because my arms and legs are officially eaten!

Happy summer.  Celebrate the longest day of sunlight.  See you back here soon!