Respect

This post sat in my draft folder for months now, so here she goes.

The human body is an amazing thing and is capable of magnificent things. I had a brief conversation with a colleague this morning about injuries and recovery and made me think of the interesting topic of respect for your body. Respect for the fully capable and operating human body. Respect for the body that constantly recovers from the torture it is put through on a daily basis. Respect for the privilages and opportunities we, as North Americans, are blessed with.

Personally, I have had to learn to respect my body and treat it well. It was not always that way.

I come from a very traditional family where junk food (chips, pop, white bread, candy, etc...) was the norm and was around all the time. Most adults dont have the discipline to stay away from these types of horrible foods, let alone children exposed to it from the day they were born. It becomes a way of life. By the time I hit high school, I was a bit overweight from over indulging in such bad eating habits and not paying attention to my body when it reacted badly to certain foods. This is very common and I see it all the time with people all around me.

I started climbing mid-way through high school and learned that this particular body type was not at all suited for the activity that I had fallen in love with. I was forced to change my ways and it took a long time to acheive this.

During my long climbing career and other crazy (or stupid) things I have done, I ended up taking many long and hard falls onto my back, sides, ass, etc. This ended up compounding and in my early 20's lead to seven lessions in my spine (where the vertabrea get cranked out of line). Its about as bad as it sounds. There was a year and a half of my life where brushing my teeth caused radiating pain in my back, shoulders, and ribs. It was a tough time. Luckily, through a great friend of mine, I found an osteopath that thought very holistically and was able to literally put be back together. Many lessons came from those dark days of my past. They helped shape the person I am today and allowed me to truely respect the fully funtioning body that most people take for granted each and every day.


I heard a quote, which I absolutely love, last year and I cant get it out of my head. It has become somewhat of a modo that I have been living my life by for the past year or so. Infact, I spent and entire day scrambling up a mountain in the Eastern Sierras last spring looking for the perfect tree to represent the thought. The saying is this "Memento mori" it translates to remember you die or remember your mortality. I am planning on getting a tattoo of a Bristle Cone Pine with the words Tempus Fuget - Momento Mori (Time flies, remember you die). It basically means that you have to live everyday like it was your last. It reminds me that we are infact mortal beings and that what we have now may not and will not last forever. Take advantage of the here and now.

So, as a moral to this little note and a classic cliche. Live life to the fullest and take in all of each days beauty while you still can. Enjoy your time on this Earth, for it is an amazing and wonderful place full of opportunities. See the beauty that others simply ignore. Treat yourself with respect and listen to your body. Use your body well. Treat your body well. Rest. Train. Challenge.