The Seed and The Giver

The seed starts out so small and frail
With so much potential, will he grow or fail
It’s a struggle form the start an all out fight
He needs soil, nutrients, water and light
He cannot do it on his own
To be a tall tree full grown
He needs the giver to straighten and build him up
To shine her light and feed him from her cup
The giver gives her whole life through
Serving is what she knows how to do
Never a thought for her own needs
Always involved in the noblest of deeds
Guiding the seed from the earliest age
It’s coach, it’s hero, it’s guide, it’s sage
The seed loves the giver for all she’s done
She is his soil, his nutrients, his water, his sun
Thank you giver for being so nice
I would never have grown without your sacrifice

It is Marilyn Woolston's (my Mom) 70th birthday today. She has spent those entire 70 years serving others. I am thankful for her, she is an amazing AMAZING lady. I am so glad that she raised me. My Father, my brothers and sisters and myself are all very blessed to have her in our lives. Thanks Mom for being The Giver!

Swimming focus paying off

I have continued to have swimming as my primary focus, and I feel like it is paying off. I was happy to swim 4000 yards in 59:40 today (with a pull buoy of course), a significant improvement over my old PR. I happened to arrive at the pool today at the same time as David Warden. (David and I have a history with our swimming. We are pretty much exactly the same speed in the water and we are both competitive so some of my best ever workouts have come when I swim with Dave. A year or so ago we did a long set of 100’s killing ourselves side by side trying to beat each other only to touch the wall simultaneously on almost every 100. We looked like synchronized swimmers. Thrashing, exhausted, learned how to swim in our thirties, can’t catch our breath synchronized swimmers.) I told Dave I was doing a 4000 time trial and I wanted to break an hour. Dave offered to swim behind me for the first part of my 4000 today and I definitely swam faster with him right behind me pushing me. I looked at my watch after every 200 or 300 and I was going faster than I had planned, I thought I might be blowing myself up trying to pull away from David and I thought I might have started to fast. But luckily even though I did slow down after the first 15-20 minutes I was able to hold it together just enough to finish under an hour. Thanks David, you bring out the Mr. Hyde in me.