Wednesday, 9 July, 2014

This pic of Chuck was taken during the Filthy 50, approximately 3 minutes after Chuck had told me that he had quit and couldn’t possibly finish. I shrugged and said okay and walked away. After taking a breath, Chuck charged back out and finished up. Afterwards, he said “thank you for not letting me give up,” at which point I said “thank you” in response. The reason for my thanks is that in that moment Chuck gave me a glimpse of something that I cherish about each and every one of our family members at CF Agoge; he showed me that he could have a moment of weakness and then decide in the blink of an eye to not let the weakness win. Each of us have had that moment, some of us long before the clock ever starts, some of us before the alarm clock rings in the morning. It may happen when we look at our piling bills, or at all of the work that we don’t have time to do. Some of us show it when we can’t resolve a conflict with a friend or loved one or when we have hit rock bottom in some aspect of our life. In that moment we have a choice to make; “do I surrender to circumstance or find a way around?” “Do I fight this battle now, or live to fight another day?” “Do I forgive and move forward, or do I remain angry and guarded?” In those moments, think of Chuck, take a breath, wait a beat, count to ten and look up and realize that the only thing stopping you from getting up and succeeding is not your circumstance, but rather your reaction to it. In these moments, we need to get to work and finish what we have started. Thank you, Chuck, as I said that day: “you are an inspiration.”