Celebrate!

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” ~~Oprah Winfrey

You know in life we will encounter hardships, hard times financially, stress from work and family, and loss of people important to us.  Sunday I went to a funeral for a mentor of mine Mark Tise.  It was probably one of the most emotional good byes I have ever had to make.  He was one of those people that you wished you could be, with the most amazing heart.  He was always on the go, always with his family, and always volunteering time to activities that touched his heart.  A few years back he gave me a job and during that time he didn't just treat me like an employee, I felt more like family.  He has kept in touch and followed my life since I left the job he gave me.  He gave glowing recommendations to future employers, never begrudging me for moving forward in my life.  Maybe that is where I get the drive to keep moving forward to this day.  From him sitting me down on my last day at work telling me never to get stuck, but to use all of life's gifts as stepping off points for something bigger and better.

So Mark, this post goes out to you and primarily your family as they now cope with the heartbreaking loss of a wonderful father and husband. 

Monday is the final day for Girls on the Run.  Last week we did a Community service project.  The girls wrote letters to people that had great effect on their lives and collected can goods for a food drive.  I will be taking a nice size box of goods to the Howard County Food bank with a card my daughter is helping me to make this week.

The thing they were most excited about was the end of year celebration.  Its exciting because some of the girls are moving on to middle school next year!  So I tried to make it something special.  As the girls' parents filtered into the room, we held a circle much like how we started the year.  Listening to the girls say something they now knew about their teammate that they didn't know before the season started.  You heard about new friendships, personality traits, and characteristics that I don't think the girls always recognized about themselves.  I loved watching the girls as they light up in response to their friends talking about them.  I loved hearing the one girl say she had made a best friend and the other girl just lighting up as they started talking about each other naming off a million things they had learned.

Then we did a little awards ceremony since many of the parents had arrived.  The 3rd and 4th graders got to go first, getting their team picture and a little something nice said about them from me.  I loved letting them each be recognized and clapped for in the front of the room. 

Then the one's that leave me, I decided to do something special.  I got them each a Girls on the Run necklace with a little silver coin on the runner Adelaide engraved-The GotR Trademark Logo.  I think what was really cute was how the rest of the group got so excited for them, but also hearing them say, they would never quit GotR now.  My evil plan worked to encourage ongoing registration!  Actually what really won everyone over was something special that I have been planning all season. 

On of the originals, a girl who has been with Girls on the Run since it started in Howard County, bringing out new girls every season, and always coming ready to be on the team.  And in the past year since I met her she has opened up, become a leader and really exemplified why this program works and is so amazing.  While many of her lessons were similar over the years, she made it a priority to learn as much as she could every practice, to be in the right state of mind and always work hard. Her mom also a huge supporter of the program since it began has been great at being at every event that the girls have.  It was really great to get to so something special for her so I put together a nice frame with a picture of her mom, myself, and her all on our 5k day in matching colored shirts (I dont even think her mom could have planned that better), and a team picture, and her certificate all framed for her to proudly display for the years to come.  I wish I could have done so much more but as with kids, they are easily pleased with even the simplest of gestures.  My own daughter was excited to see the face of our runner when she got her gift. 

And the many oohs and ahs really meant a lot from the kids.  Oh, I have set the bar now, don't worry, I am aware that all the girls that have been here every season are excited to hopefully get something similar next season.  I am sure I will maintain my own standards.  But it was something I did for the fact that she has been probably the first one signed up every single season since it was made available to her.  And not because her mom told her she had to do it, but because she truly enjoyed it. 

So we did our final cheer for the end of the year and I looked down at their little faces and though, the years go by so fast that my own daughter will be doing this with me in no time at all.  Soon, I will be sending her off to middle school myself.  Oh...I can't believe she is going into second grade already!

The girls parents stayed around with the girls snacking on all the goodies we brought in.  Being the coach I did my job to bring them healthy foods-veggie sticks, light dip, 100% juice, watermelon, and pineapple slices.  My own daughters had a blast playing with all the kids, eating junk food by the mounds, and I enjoyed getting to see all the girls hang out with their friends and the parents getting to finally hang out and chat with each other.  Usually pick ups everyone is in such a hurry they don't get to talk to the other parents or myself.  I think some of the parents probably think I am crazy now because I couldn't eat anything yesterday and was beside myself on medication because of the searing pain shooting through my jaw.  I will say though, I have kept my promise-sick, hurt, or just busy I have never missed a practice for those girls.  Which has been wonderful. 

The nice thing was how helpful the parents were at picking up with me, helping me load my car, and chatting with me.  I honestly am always a little more overwhelmed than I think I ever let on so it is always appreciated when they go out of their way to give me an extra hand.  And it was nice to get to chat with some of them about their daughters and even about my own kids.  Many of them don't realize that I am a single parent or when they do I think they all believe my kids must be older.  When you see that I have a 2 year old (she is nearly 3) and a 7 year old you realize what exactly I am going through some days.

So the season has come to a close, my tears have been shed.  I now will focus on training for the Iron Girl Triathlon for August so stay tuned to the blog for my random life of training, and waiting for the fall season to start.  In the mean time -Keep Moving Foward!