Today I was at the gym doing my normal thing… 20 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of weights and then another 20 minute of cardio. Pretty much the same thing everyday, switching up the cardio and weights to give it some variety (and to keep me sane).
There is this one woman that I see every other day or so. She must be in her late 30s, short, latino… always wears this tight black workout suit, a red bandana and dangling gold earings. I am always leary of the people that wear full make-up and jewelry to workout (esepcially the men). But I digree. We will call this woman Tina.
Now, Tina looks like the real spunky type. The type that keeps things going at parties, or has real crazy ideas for a friday night excursion. But there is one funny thing about Tina… she is always on her cell phone while on the eliptical. I kid you not — non stop through the whole thing while huffing and puffing to the rhythm of her feet gliding over the air. Once a call ends, she finds another person to converse with while working off the few fat cells that she might have left on her body. I cannot tell you how many times she says, “gotta go, someone is on the other line” as well. And when she is done, she walks out of 24 Hour Fitness -you guessed it- on the phone.
It made me think… are we really that busy that we now have non-stop conversations while at the gym? As if our lives were so packed that we couldn’t fit all the conversation in our allotmen of 2 hours each day?
I smiled smuggly and walked off to the bench press.
It was at this point that my iPod told me the battery was running too low to continue playing the south park episode I was watching on the treadmill. (I relalixe how ironic that statement is after I just made that judgement about my workout buddie, Tina — just keep tracking with me) So, I switched it over to the music.
I actually hadn’t listened to alot on the iPod in a while. Maybe a couple of years.
You see, I used to live and eat and breathe and drink music. I was a music whore, always looking for the newest bands, the latest trends and continuously looking for the next song that would be the anthem for my week. But not lately. In fact, when my friends would ask me, “What are you listening to these days?”, I would pause and say, “not much”, unaware of the potency of that statement. I justified it by being the cool guy who was going on a musical hyadus to find my own musica voice.
Far from the truth…
You see, somewhere along my journey I forgot about the music. I forgot about play and fun and enjoying life. Somewhere between carefree and becoming completely responsible for leading the free world, I lost my soul. Not in the sense of “I sold my soul to the devil” or “I left my soul in El Paso” — I just lost the beauty of life in trying to acomplish life. Not only have I not written a song in over three years, I have not really enjoyed the music in over three years.
So, as I sat on the bench press, I took it all in. The chords, the musical phrasing, the inter-mingling of notes and melodies… I almost starting singing in the mirrored room full of mass amounts of muscle, sweat and testosterone. It felt like I got a glimse of what was missing.
For me, everything is spiritual. When I play music, when I expercize, when I have great conversations over coffee — it all makes me feel more connected to God. I just realized that a huge part of that connection has been missing, and I have it back. I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me.
don’t forget the music.
