Sizzle

I want to tell you a story about someone I know (yes this is a real person) who by all imaginations of the word is healthy. He has a great outlook on life, is spiritual, has a wonderful family, a loving wife and does well at his work. This person is athletic, he listens to music and knows how to take it easy when it is time. He loves to golf and swim in the summer and he and his family spend time at the beach and park together. My friend loves the smell of fresh cut grass and mows his own lawn because of it. His hobbies also include gardening, especially vegetables. He actually enjoys yard work because it gives him a sense of accomplishment and allows him to tap into his creative side.

During the fall he helps his children onto the bus in the morning and doesn’t leave for work until they are on it. Although his work schedule doesn’t always allow him to eat dinner with the family, when he gets home he plays with his kids until bed time and then has his meal. My friend is also one of those rare birds who enjoys getting outside during the winter, taking his kids sledding and skiing. In fact, it’s when he doesn’t get outside that he feels like a caged animal, regardless of the season.

Lastly, my friend is “one of those guys” who doesn’t go to the doctor. To be honest, he doesn’t need to. As I already stated, he is healthy. Sure, the couple bones he has broken have lead him to seek medical attention as he should. He sees his Chiropractor on a regular basis and only reads inspirational books and stories, no newspapers or TV news to fill him with negativity.

Wouldn’t we all love to have that life? I know I would. And again, it is a real life. My friend also handles his weekly headaches well. Everything from the pain-in-the-neck coworker to crying kids and yes, even the “real” headache. I’ve been around him in the rare instance that he “blows up” and it is not a pretty sight. But none of us would ever know it. He is real LIFE, that is what healthy is.

I look at my friend and remember health isn’t always the perfect picture we want it to be. Nor is it the picture represented in fairy tales, movies, and TV. Being healthy is real LIFE. Real life is allowing ourselves to experience all that LIFE has to offer. How could we know love without pain? Laughter without sadness? Peace without anger?

We all want to be healthy. But the honest truth is that most of us don’t care if we are healthy, rather that we have what health can bring us. We all need to ask ourselves, is our vision of being healthy real or our fantasy of what we think it “should” be? There will always be something to work on or improve, that’s LIFE. Let’s get to work.