Launch For Hire Under Cumulus Clouds – Inverness, Tomales Bay 

One of my favorite clouds types is cumulus. The dictionary definition holds insightful meaning: “from the Latin – to heap, amass, or surplus…increasing by accumulation or successive additions” is the first. The third definition wakes me up: “relating to interest or dividends that, if not paid when due, become a prior claim for payment in the future.” I recently had lunch with a favorite former student. Oscar’s face is radiant with insight, eyes twinkling with delight, his voice alive with accomplishment. “Just do a few important things everyday! It’s cumulative. I read just a half hour every day and I’ve already read ten books this semester! You just have to do it.” He went on to relate life-changing habits of eating healthy and building his muscle strength with weights. I wince thinking of the sets of weights in my classroom, on my boat, and at the cabin that go unused. I know how important daily exercise is for rebuilding my muscle strength post leg reconstruction surgery in 2013. You lose up to 40% of your muscle mass with 6 months of bedrest. Much of my 20-pound weight loss was that good stuff – muscle. I know how important it is to follow through with the PT exercises, yet I don’t do them. I listen to Oscar and think, it is cumulative,… in both directions. What we don’t do adds up as much as what we do. After losing 20 pounds and going from a size 12 to a size 10 myself, I’ve been nagging my husband lately to eat healthier and reduce fat, and build muscle.  I want our sixties to be healthy and strong; hiking, boating, traveling into our retirement years. Yet, I realize that my weight loss is meager compared to the need to rebuild my own muscles for optimum health. Tonight I stopped and bought a gym pad for the boat and started doing 20 minutes of weights and yoga. Like Oscar says, it’s cumulative. Today I’m accumulating in the right direction. The launch I seek is for strength that supports a healthy weight for a future of wellness in this adventure, in this body that I’ve hired out for this lifetime.