Date: 2012-11-29
To: Ladies and Gentlemen, Start your engines !
Miles today: 0.0

We lived for several years in the late 70's in Carmel, Indiana (just north of Indianapolis). Both of our sons were born at St. Vincent Hospital. It was a place I did not want to move from when the Army said it was time to move on but move on we did and our next stop was Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Now that is one windy place !!! My husband attended a 9 month school there and then we moved to Germany and after 1 1/2 years onto Belgium for 5 years. Our youngest son is now stationed at Chievres, Belgium. We never would have dreamed in our wildest dreams that one of our sons would join the Army, be living near the helicopter flight detachment his dad commanded and daily drive by the little house we rented in Jurbise (in between Chievres and SHAPE). He was about 8 yrs. old when we moved to Georgia. What follows "sparked"(haha) these memories; we went to the Indy 500 once. In a way we are like the Indy 500 drivers albeit our feet will be much slower and our groans will certainly not reach the crescendo of Indy 500 cars, hopefully.If you have ever watched the start of the Indianapolis 500, either in person or on television, you are familiar with the following announcement:"Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!"This announcement is a loud and clear signal to both the drivers and the fans that the much anticipated race is about to begin. As the engines roar to life, the enthusiasm in the crowd builds and builds to a roaring crescendo.Then one by one, the cars slowly begin moving down the track and gradually pick up speed during the warm up lap. As they approach the starting line, the warm up car leaves the track and the starter drops the flag. The drivers then accelerate to full throttle and the 500 mile race begins.There are few spectacles in sport that capture so much excitement and energy as the start of this famous race. But what would happen if the announcement to start their engines was never made and all of the drivers just sat in their cars and no race took place?Before long, you would certainly experience firsthand the wrath and fury of hundreds of thousands of impatient and irate fans in the stands who came to see the race. The millions of viewers tuned in at home would wonder what in the heck is going on and eventually turn the non-race off. Nobody would wait around forever to simply watch parked cars doing nothing, going nowhere. After all, you could go to your local shopping mall and do the same thing, couldn't you?Everyone knows that nothing exciting happens at the Indy 500 until the drivers start their engines. The same thing can be said about people as well. Nothing exciting ever happens in our lives until we decide to start our own engines. It is a mystery to me how some people expect to reach their goals and live their dreams when they refuse or even forget to turn their engines on.How about you? Have you turned on your ignition switch today? If you have, good for you. If not, you should turn it on now! It is a healthy habit that you simply must develop if you truly want to live life.Why not start each day by mentally putting the key into your ignition switch and then, ready or not, start your engine? You will find that it is easy to turn your engine on when you actively pursue goals that really get you going. These "get you going" goals are those activities that excite you, inspire you and move you to action.You will discover that when you are passionately pursuing your dreams every day, getting started each day will never pose much of a problem again. When you begin fashioning your life around those things that you truly love to do, you will start jumping out of bed every morning, fully charged and rip roaring raring to go - anticipating yet another day of fun and adventure. Always remember that you and you alone hold the key. Just like the drivers at the Indy 500, you need to insert that key in your ignition switch, start your engine and then get ready for the ride of your life. ~Power Up Passages by Greg HickmanLadies and Gentlemen of the Class of 2013, I'm jumping out of bed every morning and I expect you are too as we actively pursue Katahdin. See you on the trail !And to those who dream of Katahdin but have yet to put the key into the ignition, there's still time. Rev your engine and join us.P.S. As an aside, I was headed out for an appointment this afternoon and my car wouldn't start. My husband thought I'd left something on in the car and the battery was dead. He tried to charge the battery but that didn't work. The ignition may have died ...