Protect Yourselves At All Times

Last week was one of those busy weeks filled with a full agenda that carried over into the weekend. After the last handshake and thank you to some of the greatest people on the planet, I jumped in the car with the family Sunday afternoon and headed north just to get away and chill for a day. First thing Monday was a nice breakfast and then me, Mary and the girls were laid up on the Beach enjoying a beautiful ocean breeze. It was the perfect place to power down and with every wave sweeping up on the sand and flowing back out into the surf, I felt the stress trickle out of my body and my energy restored.

I've been around the beach and sun all my life in SoFlo and most of the time I'm aware of the fair skin my lovely mother passed on to me at birth. It's one of the blessings of being Ann Alessi's son, along with her good natured sweet spirit. Yes, I have a soft side that comes from my mommy. Over the years though I wished I had inherited my father's olive complexion from his Italian heritage, but that wasn't the case. I can thank him for my hot-passionate temper and high blood pressure. So when I hit the beach, I'm one of those who need the 30 SPF sun screen.

On the beach I made sure I loaded up my face, chest, stomach and shoulders and then turned my attention to the cool, relaxing breeze. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Perfect day to simply relax, which I did for about 2 hours. When we were ready for a good meal, we packed up our chairs and towels, cleaned up and off we went to a "Little Bit of Brooklyn". And that's when I started to notice the uncomfortable pain in a very odd location...my underarms. At first I thought my deodorant had caused a slight irritation, but when I got back home and took off my shirt I realized I forgot to put sunblock on one very important place on my body and now my underarms were screaming from the pain of being sunburned. Can you imagine that, an underarm sunburn?

Now maybe this is something women are accustomed to dealing with when they head out to the beach, but putting sunblock under my arms is not what I usually do when I'm in the sun. And let me tell you, the last thing on my mind to do after hanging out with a bunch of Goodfellas for a few days, was sunscreening up my underarms. But now the burning heat is as irritating as...well you know. Next time for sure I'm covering up every place on my body.

And that's not only good for sunbathing, but also a good practice for every area of my life. I just can't get out in life and not think about keeping myself protected or else life can be filled with pain. An unprotected attitude could mean pain in my career. Unprotected spending will lead to pain in my wallet. Unprotected passions definitely will cause serious pain in my relationships. There are some areas of our lives that we need to keep covered or else pain will be the outcome.

One of the greatest lessons of life can be learned from the sport of Boxing. After the boxers are announced and the fighters are brought to the middle of the ring to receive their last minute instructions from the referee, before he sends them back to their corner to begin the fight, he always admonishes the fighters with these words: Keep yourself protected at all times.

You got it, ref. I will definitely remember every day is a fight and we need to stay on our toes and stay protected. Because, as I learned this week on the Beach, the uncovered areas of our lives could cause us much pain and there's no one to blame for that but ourselves.

Help me out. How do you keep yourself protected at all times?