wagonroad

With the CrossFit Open heading into week 4, I think all of us competitors (perhaps my Masters group in particular) are kind of tiptoeing around so as not to get hurt before the end. It's not as if we think much about our general physical health any other time of the year when we focus on many WODs a week.  The Open will do this to a CrossFitter's psyche!

While they aren't things I can't handle, a bunch of glaring imperfections in my human machine have come up when I least needed their arrival.  Dare I admit it's due to normal aging stuff?  Well, yeah, I suppose I could, but frig that! :) I probably wouldn't be so aware of these little things were it not Open season!  I should even be careful about 'tiptoeing around' too much...gotta save my calves and achilles for double unders and box jumps! 

Why mention this?  Eons ago I worked at a camp for special needs children called WagonRoad Camp.  These were kids from New York's inner-city who were often experiencing feeling 'normal' for the first time as well as being in the country for the first time.  They had all sorts of malfunctions of their human machines, but enjoyed every day.
Some fellow counselors and I came up with a little song to sing on our way to various places at the camp, sung to the cadence of an Army march:
My back ache
My belt to tight
My bootie shake
From left to right
Go left, go left
Go left, right, left.....(repeat until sick of it!)
Sometimes it was to get them from a to b, sometimes it was to pick up their spirits because they thought it was funny that we said 'bootie', sometime we counselors sang it to make ourselves smile.
My daughters grew up hearing that song and I loved that it usually made them smile too. 

For some unknown reason it's been playing over and over again in my head the last few weeks.  No analyzing "why" allowed here.  It gets me smiling. It helps take me out of my own head about the Open and my need to adjust to my ever changing human machine.  And by default, it takes me back to the kids I worked with who were so joyful through all their problems, which just plain puts me in a good place.  That's the reason I wanted to share it.  Being in a good place is worth the work...even if you don't know if you're going left or right! :)

A usual day at any camp!

Playing softball, crazy

dressup day for the couselors,

and Nettie trying to tell

me which direction to go! :)