COVID/CORONA and rising from the ash

Harry Potter...anybody else read them? Some of you are saying "Hell Yeah" Im sure, some of you have just thought about not reading further. Well just hang on and Hear me out.  Im reading The Chamber of Secrets now and Harry is sitting in Dumbledore's office and see's the Phoenix, which is mythical bird, turn into flames, die and fall into a heap of ashes. Are we there yet? In some countries I feel so.

The Covid Virus or more commonly the Corona Virus is sweeping the world by storm. Everyday we are hearing thousands of cases being reported and the death toll rising tremendously. We are in uncharted territories where shops and public areas are being shutdown and many are struggling for basic supplies. The world Market is falling into a depressive state and people are losing their jobs. Closed, banned, prohibited, social distancing are all terms that are becoming common lingo for us earthlings. The bird has been burnt, its in flames, we are falling into that pile of ash.

I own a gym, yesterday we decided to spring clean and disinfect our whole gym. This left us an opportunity to exercise outside on the fields we have available. We don't do this very often, and the members love it. We trudged some kettlebells and dumbbells outside and hit a 38min workout in the great outdoors.
While Im watching people to make sure they are doing the movements right, I look around...
People have stayed after class and are chatting. Families are playing with their children. Some people are kicking a ball around. My friend Steve (yes that is his real name, I know most people make up names to hide identities haha) has pulled his car round to the field and is playing some music in the background.
And all the while the most picture perfect painting is being put together all around us. The most amazing g reds and yellow beam through the dark blue sky. Theres parts of the clouds that are dark and the light is becoming golden. Every colour is on its best, the reds are darker, the blues are deeper and the darks are highlighting everything.
This is what its all about, people, the people around us making life better in everything. I believe people can be the greatest problem but they can also be the greatest solution. Here we are, I close my eyes and take a mental screenshot of whats transpiring around me. It inspires me.

Suddenly everything that was worrying me fades away, the stresses and uncertainties fade away. I feel a whisper into the deepest darkest chambers of my entire been "Its gonna be okay."
I fight it, how can it be okay, what is okay, the virus, people dying, the economy collapsing. How is this okay.
I realize, the comforts we have know to love and live by are only okay because they are usual. The unusual scares the shit out of me! But it is okay.

Its okay to be burnt, fall into a heap of ashes...to have everything fall apart! Because its out of those ashes that we are cleansed. That we start to discover what is the most important things in our lives. People, family, friends, relationships. Community, love, kindness, solving a problem together. Being a support...having support. Seeing the sun, smelling the grass, hearing nature. We are in a strange time.
We need to embrace the fall with an attitude of arising! Through the ash comes a new creature. A new opportunity a new chance to change the way we can live. In these times we need to show empathy, put our hands up and support each other. May pride in this time be washed away, may no color or race or income group be superior, because quite frankly, the virus is leveling us.
By leveling us, many have realized that their identity lies in things that can fall away instantly, even a job is not your identity.

Your morals and who you are will be tested in these times. Time to discover what humanity really is.

Stay safe out there everyone
Peace
Kunjani

CrossFit changed my life

Recently I have had the opportunity to take over and become the part owner of a crossFit box. I guess this explains all my posts and training and comments on Facebook, and quite honestly, nobody that has been part of the community will ever understand, CrossFit has changed my life!

Competing at my first online competition (back in the black shirt)

Last year this time (I know because Facebook memories told me so) I was going through a tough tough time. I won't get into details but it seemed that a lot on which I had built my life on was falling apart. Its funny that in these moments, they physical things that are taken from you mean nothing compared to the spiritual and mental things. You feel so empty. I was in a dark dark place, a place I thought I had to pretend didn't exist, but it was so real, it was there when I went to ben, there when I went to sleep. My once "safe place" for community and love had become a place of hurt an deception, this isolated me even more. Rewind though some months...

One single meeting would have a ever lasting impact on my life. I met with Henri the Marketing manager of the mall and Francois early one morning to discuss an "Operation Smile" fundraising event. I had been on missions with the organization and raised a lot of money for them through my solo adventurers and my most recent expedition on bicycle from Cairo to Cape Town. The idea was to have a burpee marathon and get donors to give money to the charity depending on the amount of completed burpees.
The Mall would be the venue.
one question...at the end of the meeting,"So what do you do?"
"I run the CrossFit Mammoth, you should come check it out,"

I couldn't forget the words of the young passionate man talking about crossFit, I drove to Pretoria later that day and on the way back I organized to pop in at the CrossFit Mammoth. When I arrived, there was some as we would say now, "clanging and banging" going on, loud music, people laughing, smiling and lifting weights, sweating, lying on the floor and just having a great workout. I was hooked, I wanted in. The next day I checked in for my first workout...

And then two month in, everything seemed to fall apart, literally in the space of a week I had to walk into the box a different broken man. I couldn't hide it. There was something though that kept me coming back. Perhaps it was that there were no mirrors so I couldn't see the reflection of my broken self, or perhaps it was the sound of heavy breathing, of weights hitting the floor of music blaring that helped me ignored everything I was going through.

Back in training after a adventure trip in Europe 

But it wasn't any of those but at the same time was all of those, just mixed with human interaction, care and people just loving being amongst each other training. For a long time I would do three sessions in a row, work so hard that I could hardly move the next day. I cried in that box, laughed, had silly chats and deep conversations about everything I was going through. Not once was I judged, not once was I laughed at, not once was I not good enough. I learnt a lot in that year about patience and love.

Fast forward a year and the box is still going strong after challenges that would have sank the titanic. Sometimes I would sit and watch everything happen and get depressed, this was my home, a place that offered me hope in a time where I had none. So I committed to stay...instead of abandoning the people who were now as broken as me, crying out for help. I stayed and I learnt to look past things and instead forgive and love and never judge. I prayed everyday in the box, over the place and the equipment that it would be a place of hope once again. I spent many nights there with Francois and envisioned such big things for peoples lives to be changed the way mine was.

Yet still I was never really involved until a month ago where I was approached to become a director and co - owner of the box. At first I was confused and then I remembered every prayer uttered...
I was overwhelmed an absolute dream come true for me! And here I am in the community that changed my life, committing to change others lives and give back.

Before I started I used to think crossFit was senseless. A place to throw weights around and push yourself to unhealthy limits, but now I know better. From the moment you walk in the door you are stripping off your CEO, teacher, accountant, secretary, manager, miner...or any other title. You simply leave it at the door. You walk in for the person standing next to you, to be their spot and encouragement, and they walk in for you. You step into the "team" when you walk in the door. Into a community that loves you and is there for you no matter what. We are there to help with your first sit up, jump rope. row for time, muscle up pull up, squat, personal best...but then we are there for your worst, your failures, your stiffness, your aches and pains. Its more than a training gym or program it is a community of health and fitness.

Our Christmass WOD 

And if that doesn't change your life, the physical results will! I have been the fittest, with the lowest fat percentage of my life in my life. On top of that I have lifted the heaviest weights I have ever attempted! To look in the mirror when you get home and say "I am Keegan Longueira, I trained my hardest today, I gave my all at life, I ate well and tonight I go to bed, regardless of any situation, ready for a new day, to give my all, all over again...for me, that is one of the best feelings in the world.

I wish I could share the details of brokenness with you all, but it just doesn't seem right, it would make the story a whole lot better but perhaps one day you will understand why crossFit has changed my life!