Well it’s time for round two of my romantic reflections. So be you friend, acquaintance, family member, or a cyberspace traveler just passing through, I hope you enjoy the modest musings of a simple girl who had, as they say, a “date with destiny” just four short months ago…
The exact date was May 21st of this year – the very day, you may recall, that the world was scheduled to end, according to apocalypse-peddler Harold Camping. While there were no world-ending earthquakes, a certain cataclysmically-themed hit pop song by Carole King aptly summarizes that day:
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you’re around…
Corny, yes, of course it is, but corny with uncompromising kernels of truth! 😉
I woke up that Saturday morning without a care in the world, not even caring that the world could end at any moment. I put on half a face, threw on a t-shirt and a favorite pair of purple Lululemon running shorts, ate breakfast, then headed out, coffee in hand, to “cover” – for purposes of this and my gym’s blog – the local CrossFit community workout being hosted in a local athletic store’s parking lot.
My fiancé — at that time no more than a facebook “friend” whom I’d never met despite several mutual real-world friendships and shared work environment – was coaching the workout that morning, but I was too busy concentrating on my blog subject, Colleen, and her first experience with CrossFit to notice the cute guy in the green shirt conducting the frenetic orchestra of sit-ups, lunges, and lateral jumps.
After the workout, as wiped out CrossFitters wiped away their sweat and hobbled to their vehicles, Colleen introduced me to Ben, but the exchange was brief, which, in retrospect is rather strange given that he and I (especially him, I might add) are by no means shy when it comes to conversing with strangers. I suppose he had to help the other coaches pack up the medicine balls, rowers, and other CrossFit apparatuses (apparati?)…
Feeling inspired to work out, I headed to the gym and promptly found myself getting roped into a WOD (that’s CrossFit speak for “Workout of the Day”) by a few friends…and a future fiancé of mine…
Mind you, I had never “wodded” outside of an introductory CrossFit class, and here I was falling all over myself trying to keep up with CrossFit coaches. I felt like a Shetland pony racing against a pack of thoroughbreds at the Kentucky Derby. But lucky for me, I had in my exercise arsenal one move which Ben happens to find impressive: ring dips…
Even as Ben, in his endearingly didactic way, kept moving the rings higher and higher off the ground, I didn’t feel “sparks” fly, nor did I notice any cherubic archers skulking about, waiting to take shots at us. It wasn’t until that evening when I sent him an innocuous (I promise!) facebook message asking if he could answer a few CrossFit WOD-related questions for my blog (via facebook!) that the proverbial ball was set in motion, propelling us toward Husband and Wife.
I guess it’s fair to say I’m grateful Mr. Camping miscalculated the end of the world. God still has jobs for us to do, places for us to go, and people to meet! I thank Him each day for leading me to Ben and for every twist, turn, valley and peak I encountered along the way.
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” –James 1:16-17
Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di