There are many things that I got from my dad. My fondness for 🍨 ice cream, dark chocolate, and 🍿 popcorn with lots of butter. This voice that’s often too loud. A love of reading, especially nonfiction. Want to know one of the things I’m most grateful that he passed on to me? It has to be his focus on fitness.
When he was young, he was a gymnast and played 🏀 basketball. Tennis and golf were some of his favorite sports, but his real passion was 👟 running. That was true throughout his life. When we were kids, family dinner couldn’t be served until he finished a few miles after work. Even in his 80s, he worked to stay in good enough shape to 🏃🏻 run on the streets or the treadmill at the YMCA in town.
It seemed like he was always stretching and toning his muscles. He would come into my room to talk about my day and say 🌛 goodnight when I was a little girl, doing sit-ups or leg lifts on the hardwood floor throughout our conversations. 💪🏻 Fitness wasn’t a phase for him. It was a lifestyle.
I wasn’t an athletic child, but I understood the importance of fitness and even caught his 😍 love of putting in the miles as I got older. We often 🏃🏻♀️ ran together, even though he was much faster and could go farther than I could.
He’s been gone for years, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. He still shows up when I’m exercising on the roads or trails. 🥰 Skeptics can stop reading here.
It started not long after he died. A 🦋 butterfly would fly alongside me briefly as I ran or walked, then fly away. At first, I didn’t really pay attention. Then, I noticed that it happened every time I was on a run. 🙌 Every time, I’m telling you. Even when it wasn’t typical weather for 🦋 butterflies. Sometimes when Ken or one of the kids is with me. Always when I’m alone. ❤️ Deep in my bones, I know that those 🦋 butterflies are my dad’s way of checking in. 😍
If you’re 🍀 lucky enough to have someone in your life like my dad, they never really leave. They just find other ways to show up, like saying hello on the trail.💖
sharing the stairs 