Inspiration and Footprints

Ever since making the big click (The last click to sign up for my first triathlon), I've been scouring the net for information on triathlons. Training programs, pictures, routes, elevations, average times, and most recently, podcasts; I'm a sponge, soaking up as much info as I can on everything I can about the sport. The most recent podcast I listened to is called "Get your geek on." Keep in mind that I've been combing through dozens of these, but one segment in one episode stands out.
In an early episode, during a segment called "Tri life lessons" one of the hosts makes a deep and beautiful observation. She was asking herself why she couldn't be normal; shop like normal women her age; gossip in the lunchroom. Then it seems to hit. This ride...

"Wasn't meant for normal people, so I can't be normal and expect to find where it would lead." (Get Your Geek On Ep # 2 @ 44:20 min, Iron Wil)

How cool is that. I have people looking strange at me for just doing a sprint tri, let alone the mind boggling 140.6 mi of an ironman, which I very much plan on completing in the next few years. Even the sprint distance is something that most people will never achieve. Not because they don't have the strength or stamina, but they just don't have the inner push to complete the course.

"It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself." ~ Muhammad Ali

This new pregnancy has given me the opportunity to look behind me and see what I've accomplished. At first it was with a tinge of regret, that I wouldn't be able to do many of those things again. This put my experiences in a different light.

• I've been the hero when I saved the life of a friend during a diving accident. Now its when I hold a little girl who had a bad dream.
• I've been a villain at a time when I wronged people who put their full trust in me, and now again when I tell Lorelei not to hit.
• I've felt small and insignificant seeing a terrible black storm coming towards our ship on the Caribbean sea, and I've felt the same knowing I wasn't good enough to support a family without changing jobs.
• On that same ship, same sea, observing God's artwork looking across a beautiful blue glassy expanse to the sunset. Now I see the same beauty in my family's smiles.
• I've walked away from motorcycle accidents that I shouldn't have (Becca looking on says she didn't think I was getting up) and seen first hand God's protection. Now I pray that protection over my daughter while she sleeps.

I realize now that the sum of my experiences is nothing to regret, impossible to redo, humbling to the spirit, and nothing in comparison to whats in store.
There's one more quote from that podcast that really touched me, and I recommend finding and listening to it if you get the chance. I'll close with this:

"I'm afraid, some days, because I wonder if I'm lost. I get nervous, because there's no footprints to follow. But lately I've discovered, if I look over my shoulder, I'll find some, and suddenly I understand much better the path I'm on." -Iron Wil