Most of the time, I have a lot to say. Most of the time I talk way too much, give super detailed directions, even at times interrupt people to get in my two cents. Today, the actions, kindness, and generosity of this amazing group of people left me speechless.
10 days ago, I had my bike stolen. “Where did you leave your bike?” I remember looking outside and saying, “Right there across the..” It hit me, it was gone. Lock cut, bike gone, zero evidence left for anyone to see. Now, New York City has some notorious bike thieves. Kryptonite named one of their locks New York City, and even has an insurance policy attached to it. Yes, I own one of these locks but of course I was not using it in this instance. But it was gone. I was speechless when it happened. Yea, bikes get stolen all the time, but nah that would never happen to me. The funny thing was I was not even phased at the time. I didn’t know what to think and definitely not what to say. It didn’t really hit me, but then I thought: I’m not hurt, I’m not injured, it’s only stuff.
I was walking away from the workout with Jeanie and a family of four stopped us. They said, “Hey! You’re November Project! We live across the street and just looked it up on our phones. What is it?” We gave them the elevator speech. John, the father, was sold. His son and daughter were a bit perplexed when we told them an eleven year old works out with us pretty regularly(aka Vader). They had no idea what had just happened 100 feet away, but they could feel the power from their apartment and were drawn to it. Or they were just waiting at the bus stop which is next the exit of the park. Either way, they were excited.
I got back to my computer, and the first thing I saw was a post about how marathoners were stopped by a train early in their race and threw everyone off, even those trying to run Boston Qualifying times. One of those runners was our own Guarav. He didn’t have the race he set out to have, hot temperatures, etc. all added to him not hitting the goal he set for himself. Less than 48 hours from his race, he still has a smile on his face and replied with this:
I think it’s a good lesson for all runners …. sometimes life happens and there isn’t much you can do other than move on. We are fortunate to be healthy enough and have the resources to run a marathon …
Over the past two and half years, we have seen some incredible acts of kindness, support, and generosity from the tribe. It was something that I was always in awe of when watching the looks on people’s faces after. This morning, was no exception. When John brought up Remi for a “special presentation,” I had no idea what was going on. Usually someone comes up to us before the workout or earlier in the week, but I hadn’t heard anything about it. Remi got up and they put me front and center and started to talk about the bike incident and so on. It wasn’t until that point that, I too, really felt the impact of what this tribe is capable of. I had to put my head down and think about what I was going to say. First reaction, I was speechless. Honestly, I have no idea what I said because I was just shocked, humbled, and eternally grateful for this tribe. But that moment, those 180 seconds changed my entire day.
Writing this post I am still speechless about the actions from today, and pretty sure I blacked out for the last three minutes. But what I wanted to say, and will say again if I already did, is you all are some of the most amazing people in the world. My bike was stolen, but as Guarav said, we are fortunate. We are fortunate to be healthy, alive, and here.We have each other, we have the ones we truly care about in our lives. People are way more important than material possessions. The power that you all have over each others lives is incredible and something that is special. Before I had talked about it, seen it happen to other people. Today, I felt that power and…. speechless.
