A life in pictures

Yesterday I had the privilege of celebrating the life of an elderly gentleman who had a very good innings.  I'd known him for 10 years however for the last two, he wasn't as sharp as he had been.  Fortunately he didn't suffer for a long time with dementia and he had a wonderful family who brought him so much joy.  As you'll have heard me say it before, we all know the end of this movie and no one gets out alive so we should make the most of it.  This isn't a sad message, this is one we should grasp with both hands.
At the funeral they had a plasma screen showing pictures of his life.  I was mesmerised to see this young dapper young man who had a love of cycling and sports cars.  As the pictures went through the stages of his life, student, single, married, children and grand children it got me thinking.  What would the pictures of my life be like?  Which pictures would my kids choose?  What would they say?
I'm sure they would be a lot of laughter at the shorts (very short and tight) that I wore in early 80s (and the perm!) but if this was taking place in 20/30 years time what would any grandchildren be thinking about the "lycra phase"!  How would the kids explain it.
I've been involved in this magnificent madness for 8 years now, 7 of it covered by this blog, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.  I've treated it as a scientific experiment to see what my body and mind was capable of and it's beyond anything I thought possible.  Yesterday I was reading through emails that were sent to me when I was running in the MdS 3 years ago.  Tears rolled down my cheeks as the memories of sitting at night in the tent, knackered and eating boil in the bag food while nursing blisters came back to me.  Having family and friends that support you get you through the toughest of challenges and make you realise that if you understand the "WHY" then you will achieve your goals.
Today I was at a "breathing workshop" run by the wonderful Mark Russell.  I need to breathe better otherwise I'll be dropping out of this movie earlier than the script intends.  I'm going to work with this new learning so I can be more efficient in my swimming, cycling, running and cope better with the stresses of life.  Think about the pictures that would sum up your life to date and the pictures you'd like to create in the future.  Breathe easy and live life to the full my friends.