Gift

I went to my aunt's apartment building to climb the stairs wearing my weight vest. Four floors fourty pounds, abouts 36 seconds. Not terrible, but then you've got to add 10 pounds and remember to immediately start pulling on a rope at the top.

This is the aunt in whom I confided (obviously) and who encouraged me to record this story. And so she had three requests and a story, for me.

One was that I fuel my body adequately, because she worries about my weight. It is true that I lost about five pounds over the last two or three years, but I have actually gained a couple back. I do have to be conscientious about my eating, making sure to have food with me if I am going from a workout to another appointment, because I can't grab food on the go due to time and nutritional and nutritional constraints. So ok, I'll continue to work on being mindful.

The second was that she wants me to have someone to talk to about what I am preparing to do. We talked about this before, and she means someone like a therapist - definately not a family member - because she thinks it ought to be a neutral party. She feels that joining the Fire Department is a bit like going off to war; admittedly that might be overstating it, but not too much. And she wants me to have support as I go through the trials of training, and beyond, I suppose.  I get it. If you refer back to the last post and note the section on the maze, you may notice that there is similarity between how firefighters and soldiers deal with fear. It's called denial. Again, more on this, but suffice it to say for now, that I've got this one covered, too.

The third was that she wants me to document my story. ...
I hope to get better at getting at the interesting stuff.

Now the story. My greatgrandfather was a musician but in order to make some money he joined the navy. He may have even been underage. So he was in the military band. Of course, it used to be that there lots of military bands. It turns out that he was stationed in San Fransisco and was there during the great earthquake and fires of the early 1900s.

My aunt had a military band pin that was his. She gave it to me and asked that I wear it. She said, "Our family has always found ways to be brave in spirited ways, and that is how I see you."

thanks, Aunt Anne.