Why We’re Here…

Don’t worry. I’m not going to go all preachy and explain our purpose on this earth. This is a bit more mundane, and is all about what really brought us to Park City.

We had a post all ready for today, written by both of us, about seeking sunshine during the shortest days of the year, but I woke up this morning to a new post by one of my favorite bloggers, Bob Sharpe, aka Old Man Gravel, entitled Just Keep Moving. I recommend it to you all, and that you follow Bob’s blog. He is a bike rider from Iowa, who literally rides EVERY DAY, rain, snow or shine. He is approaching 13,000 miles on his bike during this calendar year! And while I believe he isn’t quite old enough to be a Senior Ripper, he’s close, so we’ll dub him a SRIT*.

*(Gail says I have to explain, so just in case, that’s a Senior Ripper in Training)

Bob’s primary point is if we just keep moving, we will cure many of our aging ills, or help prevent them from ever occurring.

We are believers.

One of the traits of Parkites and Park City that sets them and it apart from many people and places, is that here, people’s first instinct is find an excuse to drop what they’re doing and go outside and exercise, whether it be skiing, hiking, biking…I could go on and on. While living back east, I often found the opposite. It was convenient to find an excuse not to exercise (and I must say I sometimes was guilty of that). It’s raining, it’s too cold, there’s too much traffic. Not that there aren’t plenty of active people there; it’s just that we all chose Park City for the same reasons. We’re here to move!

As a result, it’s very rare that I can’t find someone to move with me. I pick up my phone and ask, “wanna ski?”; “wanna ride?”. And the answer, much more often than not is “sure, when and where?”

Other places, people dread stormy forecasts. Here they live for them. Come October, when snow starts to appear, there is a noticeable uptick in people’s moods. When I post pictures of the snow level on our kitchen deck, I sometimes get comments from my east coast friends such as “how sad for you, so early”. Quite the contrary. We love it! It’s why we’re here!

We wake each morning and the first thing we do is look out the window to see if there has been any new snow, and check the snow reports and the forecast. Sunny and dry is not what we’re hoping for!

The benefits of moving are obvious. We are happier, healthier. We sleep better. We heal faster.

But we don’t live this life because of the benefits. We are here because it’s what we love. And as a bonus, we enjoy all those benefits and more, including like-minded people with whom we share our life.

Getting out in the winter adds so much to our lives. It makes winter something we look forward to, not something to dread.

Try it, you’ll like it. In the words of Old Man Gravel…