I'm writing a book and was given the advice to use stories to illustrate a point, rather than just boring people with facts. In my attempt I wrote about my summer activities. Please leave a comment as to whether the story seems to be relevant to the point of the topic.... which is "Regular exercise gives you the strength to do all other important things in your life." and is there a better way to word that. Thank you to all my "pre editors". Here's the story.
There have been many vacations that I’ve taken with family, where the adults have been perfectly happy to sit by and watched the kids play. I remember one beautiful summer day, we were on vacation in Idaho. The kids got to spend time with their cousins, and we took them all to a local reservoir. There were trees surrounding most of the water, and it was big enough for different families to play, and still have some privacy. In a few places there were rope swings hanging from large trees. We stationed ourselves where it was nice and shallow, so the smaller childern could play in the water safely. The bigger kids swam across the pond to the rope swings. The children had so much fun, and as adults we sat in lawn chairs watching and visiting with one another. Something in me wanted to swim, but I didn’t do it. The next day the kids went off to play softball. They asked us adults to join, but we opted to just sit around again!! Later that night, as we watched the kids play on a playground, I saw another large family. They were all playing a game of football. This football game consisted of about 60% adults and 40% kids or teens. I watched them play and I smiled with just a twinge of envy. Oh how I wanted to play like that with my family. How I wished that I had played softball and gone swimming with the kids. Maybe if I had done it, then the other adults in my family would have joined in also.
A month later we found ourselves at the beach in California. I knew my kids would love it and that’s why I took them there. The walk to the water was a long walk across hot sand. It was hard to walk on, and got in your shoes and between your toes when you walked. I hadn’t put on my swim suit yet. I got everyone settled. They quickly decided that playing in the ocean was a lot better that sitting around by mom making sand castles. They made sand castles, but they prefered to be close to the water, risking the waves washing away the walls of their creations. I had a decision to make. I could sit on my towel and do nothing but watch again, or I could take the long hard walk back to the bathrooms to change into my swim suit so that I could get wet. Luckily I’d learned from my earlier summer experience. I made the long trek back to the restrooms. My legs were a bit sore, but I was in pretty good shape from exerciseing. When I got back with my swim suit, I found that the water was unusually warm. I jumped right in with the kids and showed them how to body surf. I held my youngest sons hand and helped him to brave the waves as they came. We learned together that it’s okay if you get knocked over in the waves, and your head is submerged. We stayed in the water for hours. I think in that one day I had more fun with my kids than at any other time I can remember. I thought for sure my body would be sore the next day for all I had put it through, but I was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps the adrenalin was still pumping from all the fun we had, but I didn’t suffer and ill effects of our fun day at the beach.The lesson I’ve learned is that just because we’re adults doesn’t mean we can’t have just as much fun as the kids. It just helps to be in good physical shape so that you can really keep up and enjoy the time spent running, jumping, swimming or diving. Exercising on a regular basis can help ensure that you are strong enough to keep up with whatever comes your way.
