In response to my promising a cartwheel in honor of their birthday, a friend wrote:
"Sometime I need to hear the story behind all of these cartwheels you do! Either way, I know that's an honor in itself... so thank you very much! "
Bailey, this blog post is dedicated to you :)
I was 35 years old when I moved to Cary, NC, on Halloween, 1996. I had never lived more than 15 or 20 mins from the Atlantic Ocean, so, the first time we traveled to the NC coast, I expressed the joy I felt by turning a cartwheel. This photo was taken at Wrightsville Beach, September 2009.
Fourteen years later, a high school friend challenged me to do 49 cartwheels in celebration of my 49th Birthday. Thank you Andy Dreher, for kicking off something that has enhanced my life daily and inspired me to rename my blog - I don't even remember what it used to be! I decided to do cartwheels more frequently, and then daily for a number of reasons, as you will see below.
Since then there have been library cartwheels (when I was feeling particularly good or particularly challenged), and inspired "gift" cartwheels. The first one for Eloise Grathwohl Birthday. Now I sometimes do more than one a day, depending on how many people I know are celebrating their birthday, or if someone is trying to take a picture and wants to get it just right. When I turned 50, my kid - and my Dad - said maybe I needed to start counting backwards so I could still do one when I celebrate my 100th Birthday. While I thought that was a good idea, I have yet to start counting backwards. However, when I celebrated my 52nd Birthday, I did 53 - one to grown on. Click here to see that blog post and stay tuned for what happens this year...because... in 18 days, I will be 57 :) And now for the ABCs of why I do cartwheels:
Absolutely everything can be made better by turning a cartwheel, or two.
Because I can!
Celebrate life!
Do it to gain a fresh perspective
Erupted out of the sheer joy of being reunited with the ocean again
Feeling Frustrated or Fascinated
Gratitude expression
How it began... Hmmm... How old was I when I first did one?
Irrepressible urge to reconnect with my child-like self
Joy
Keeps me young, playful, healthy, and strong
LOVE the feeling I get when I Let go, breathe and turn everything over
My Birthday gift to myself: click here for video of 14 of those, one right after the other :)
Napatree Point is where I remember doing many as a kid - here is the most recent
May 2018
Posted by my good friend Sue Gager Palmer and her Humphrey in my honor :)
Quick video of one such beach cartwheel click here
Reminder to turn everything over to God. Everything
Spontaneous expression of gratitude and joy
Turn everything over to God aka "GUS" or the God of my
Understanding
Visceral response to arrival at the ocean again after having been away for too long
Why not?
eXpression of eXuberance
Yoga helps :)
Zest for Life
This has officially become my most favorite of all of your blog posts to date!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing your story. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete