Skipping

When I was in seventh grade, my English teacher made us all make a poetry book. We had to write a poem in several of the different techniques and one of mine was about skipping. I'm not sure what technique it was but it is written in the form of a curvy path (which took a great deal of effort in those early computer days). My poetry book is safely tucked away in one of my parent's bookshelves in Montana or I'd take a picture of it for all to enjoy. But here is the basic gist.

On my road of life, I'm skipping....then I trip and fall into a deep, dark hole (very dramatic) ....I shout at people to help me out or notice me but no one does...drama, drama, drama....I make my way out of the hole and start skipping again but now I skip with a limp.

Jay got his hands on this precious book back when we were dating and laughed as hard as I had ever seen him laugh. He started hobbling around the room mocking me as I chased him trying to get my book back. I was horrified that he would mock my earlier sensibilities. Alright, I admit now that it was overly dramatic to equate pimples, being a giant and freak among the boys (I was 5'9" by the end of the year) or the shifting of friendships that inevitably happens when anyone goes to middle school with falling in a deep hole but such is the view of a thirteen year old drama queen.

Really, I think skipping gets a bad rap. It's use is almost exclusively limited to being a metaphor for happiness or a motion young children use to play. But no more.

I skipped yesterday. Seth loves to skip and as we were walking out of the church building, he said, "let's skip." He has said this before and I've properly ignored him, but yesterday I was particularly loving him because he gave a great talk in primary and looked so dashing in his little suit coat and diagonal tie. Yes, I felt embarrassed because I didn't have a jog bra on and that's never pretty. Not to mention that if I saw someone (an adult) skipping down the road (in a skirt no less) I would make fun of her. I wouldn't roll down my window and shout out "loser!" but I would privately chortle and snicker. But, skip I did and I learned something profound on top of being the coolest mom ever in Seth's eyes.

It is a fabulous workout. I don't know why this hasn't caught on. It's way harder than jogging yet it's a motion anyone can do. It's free, low-impact, major cardio and fantastic on the quads and calves. After one block, I realized that I may be onto something. This could be the next fitness craze! Forget Tai-Bo, forget pilates....rediscover your childhood love of skipping! I dare you to try it. You could even use the guise of holding onto the hand of a six-year old like I did.

Oh....and the limp was gone.