The Olympic spirit is in us all...

The Olympics have a tendency to substantially penetrate the consciousness of our society every four years. We are a country with the strong desires to win, to conquer, to be the best, that the concept of being like an Olympian is a dominating force within many aspects of our lives.

I know that I always enjoy the news feeds and short clips of inspirational stories with so many of these athletes. The stories that tell the plight of the fallen spirit or beaten athlete that learns from the hurdles that life has thrown them to become the phoenix that their spirit embodies and rise from the struggle to become one of the best in the world, at whatever it is that they might be doing.

Dara Torres is an amazing athlete. She is competing in her 5th Olympiad. This in its own right is an amazing accomplishment. She has become the physical specimen that any person from their teens and on would enjoy. Her work is exemplary to becoming a champion. After her last Olympics she was 33 years old and felt as if she had nothing left to prove. With her neck filled with numerous medals and awards she retired and set out for what was to be next. Upon the realization that she is a swimmer, she decided to return to the Olympics and try again. Now at 41, she has returned to the arenas and pools to show her drive and determination to be the best.

Another American athlete named Raj Bhavsar is ready to show the world his spirit. After the 2004 Olympics to which he was an alternate he set out to find the missing link to his life. He delved deeper into his meditation and yoga practices to open up the more spiritual side of himself. In that process he has unlocked the soft, resilient, master of his artform while finding the peace and concentration necessary to become the champion.

He agrees with the Olympic motto: “The important thing in the Olympics is not to win but to take part, just as in life the important thing is not the triumph but the struggle.” Most athletes that go to the Olympics lose in their competition. Most athletes in any competetive sport lose to a point that they don't even get the chance to make it to the Olympics. It is not about the winning. It is about the personal spirit to become the best that we all can be at whatever it is we choose to do.

To take the struggles and use them as fuel and learn from them to become a better person, this is where life's juice is. It takes courage to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and rise above the ashes and become the phoenix of your life. If this says anything is that there is an Olympian in all of us. Perhaps the Olympics has come at the perfect time for America. It is time for our country to see this and experience this kind of energy. It is time that we find the gold in the dust of our country's past seven years and rise to meet the occasion to become a better people, a better society with a more open and inspiring agenda to the world.