"You Sparkled Today!"

We are all in different life-stages, geographic areas and work cultures, so lets practice extending grace to those who are in spaces we don’t fully understand. With this said, my space includes working from home, home-schooling and the reality that we all feel like we are physically growing larger.

I saw a friend post a joke the other day comparing the “Freshman 15” to the “Covid 19.” The amount of people who resonated with this was staggering and hilarious.  With our gyms and regular routines shut down, our exercise world has been forced to morph, like most of us, to an online culture.

I was on my phone looking for an app to guide my family through some sort of exercise routine. I went to Facebook and saw many of my CrossFit friends posting videos and workout plans that their gyms have posted. I scoped out Instagram and got really depressed when I saw all the perfect people promoting exactly what they are doing to keep looking amazing.

Trying to build a workout culture for your kids is different. It makes you think not about just achieving body goals but also heart goals.

Coming to this point made me think of my Grandma. My Grandma was a smoker, and a really dedicated one at that. She got lung cancer twice and still found a way to sneak cigarettes behind everyone’s back. She was married to a World War II vet and loved playing bingo. We ate crab legs together at Red Lobster, almost daily, during the summers. I would crack the shells, clean them and she would eat them. She loved the biscuits and the fact that they a were “all you can eat.” Before leaving, she would ask the waitstaff for extra, and she would wrap them in a napkin and put them in her purse. My Grandma was magical, fun and most of the time pretty unhealthy.

Recalling my childhood, I have often remembered the long, warm summers with my Grandparents. I have told stories about the abundance of food, Cleveland Indians baseball games and countless hours of playing poker with a John Wayne movie playing in the background. My Grandparents have since been buried and the magic of their lives twinkle in times when sparks of inspiration and creativity occur.

Going through all the workout apps, Facebook videos and Instagram photos, I remembered something that my Grandma said when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, “When you need to feel good about yourself, go to Richard Simmons.” She might of only said that once, but it was locked somewhere deep in my vault of memories. A sweet obscure memory came back of my grandma and I working out to a Richard Simmons VHS tape and laughing as he called us “beautiful.”

That was it. My Grandma did it again. Magic.

I put my phone down, gathered my kids and found a Richard Simmons video on YouTube.

As my kids and I stood in front of the TV dancing, laughing and sweating; I was blown away about how much my heart and the hearts of my kids needed a voice of hope, encouragement and vibrancy.

We have forgotten this.

“I show them the funny part, the silly part, the laughing part, the crazy part and then the really deep, deep part where I’m talking from my heart to these people. Because I’ve been through everything they’ve been through.”

— Richard Simmons

It was so funny at first. It was funny how Simmons called everyone beautiful, how he said we were fantastic and lovely. It was funny how he sang encouraging songs and called out how well everyone was doing, but when he got to the end, stood still, looked at the camera, pointed and said, “You sparkled today,” my kids and I looked at each other like we had just encountered a deep truth about our humanity, and we really really really needed to hear it.

I know, I know this sounds cheesy, but I haven’t been able to shake it. The phrase that keeps rolling around in my head is, “We live in a hard-bodied culture, and we are all dying for Richard Simmons.

When it comes down to it this isn’t about us working out, being in shape or obtaining our goals. When someone breaks down crying while being encouraged by Richard Simmons, it speaks to the state of their heart.

In the midst of Covid 19 and all the different areas we find ourselves, it is becoming more and more clear that we do in fact share a similar heartbeat. It is a heartbeat that needs love, hope, encouragement, grace, poetry, beauty, fun, adventure and purpose.  I believe that this isn’t a time for us to use our resources and energy to find our perfect bodies, however I do know that this is a time for us to reclaim and find our long-lost hearts.

Since we are all in different life-stages, geographic areas and work cultures, may we see this as a profound time to practice extending grace to those who are in spaces we don’t fully understand. May we offer encouragement, prayers, vibrancy and hope. Let us leave our old ways of criticism, perfectionism and judgment behind as we look at one another in the eyes, point and say, “You sparkled today.”