Say Yes by Kimme

About two years ago,  early on a Sunday morning,  I was running with my trail running group.  An hour into the run, the group was spread out on the mountain.  I stopped at one of the few water fountains and randomly bumped into someone in the group.  He casually suggested that we hang out sometime.  Being bombarded by daily non personal social interactions and invitations after years of living in LA his invitation was so understated that I could have easily have missed it and brushed it off.  But, he was a fellow trail runner and from watching him run over time, I could tell he was not a flake and this was not a one of those non personal invitations.

So I took a moment to think it through.  Soon after moving to Los Angeles,  I learned a lesson... if you want to get anything of value done you need to learn to say no... unless big exception,  you are in a grounded state and there is something deep inside of you that yells out "yes".    And, I heard one of those yes's.  I was 42 at the time and still single, like the rest of my talented, highly educated, and career focused friends. By now, my opinionated Chinese mom had minimized her normally stringent dating advice for me.  Her only mantra for me was, "if he eats the same food as you and likes to do the same things as you, then it is a good match"  By doing the same thing, my mom meant spending too much time  running long distances on mountains by myself and by the same food my mom meant whatever new version of an "all natural" diet I was trying.   I knew he liked running but I did remember  how his eyes glazed over when I once mentioned how I used seaweed for electrolytes in a race instead of salt tabs.   At, that time, I wrote him off as someone who I should not talk diet with.  But this time around, heard one of those big "yes''s, so I agreed to having dinner that evening.

Since then, he has in his signature nonchalant way brought up getting married, moving in together and now moving to Panama to build our own home. Each time, I took a moment and heard a yes.  So this blog will be about wrapping up what I learned  in Los Angeles and consolidating my fifteen years of daily journal musings about food, clothing, shelter and exercise.
kim