How often do we catastrophize situations out of anxiety or even sarcasm? We would never truly think that these thoughts would come into fruition. If ever to manifest into reality, our deepest fears and reactions would immerse within the unfathomable.
August 8th, 2024 (8/8/2024), was forecasted as a day of enlightenment for many individuals on our planet due to the numerical wisdom and astrological calendar. To our greater CrossFit community, we were anticipating the most exciting day of the CrossFit calendar, which was day one of the 2024 CrossFit Games. With so many new opportunities for the global community to look forward to, this day will forever become known as a nightmare.
My personal excitement for the 2024 CrossFit Games surpassed the previous 5 years. The Games finally seemed to have sustained a valid process to bring forth the entertainment, and community, since its glory days (pre-2019). Here I am, eagerly awaiting for a YouTube livestream of the first morning event to begin. Event 1 of the Games consisted of a 3.5 mile run into a 800 meter open water swim. As the first athletes were emerging out of the water onto the finish line, our CrossFit community’s hearts were about to become shattered.
I was taking a quick break from the live stream to prepare for a relaxing weekend down the shore. Shortly after, I received a text from my wife saying “Lazar Dukic went under and they can’t find him”. Then the media…
Two hours passed until it was confirmed that athlete Lazar Dukic, a well-known CrossFit Game veteran, drowned towards the end of the swim (for reasons still unknown). This tragic event struck our CrossFit community in ways we would never have thought.
First, I cannot, and will never, be able to truly understand the pain and suffering of those directly involved with this tragedy throughout the weekend. Second, I want to state that my perspective to this situation is as a loyal affiliate owner with infinite love towards the CrossFit Games and the CrossFit brand. One reason being is that the CrossFit Games were a primary motive to start CrossFit. I was passionate, and eager to immerse myself into the CrossFit Games culture. Thus, this article has a primary focus to enlighten my CrossFit MFP community to find a positive reflection from this story. Furthermore, I write this to not only simply express a broken heart for our greater CrossFit community, but in hopes to bring us together more than ever before.
During those two hours of awaiting the confirmation of Lazar Dukic drowning, all I had were those fears and reactions come into my mind. Here I am, having the privilege to drive down to the shore for a relaxing weekend with my wife, and all my mind could do was race about unwanted thoughts…
- Feeling a broken heart for our global CrossFit community
- Sadness for Lazar’s friends family, loved ones, and competitors who train their whole life for the Games opportunity
- Worry for the future of the CrossFit organization and sport
- Fear of how the outer world is going to react
- Anxiety of the unknown and unknowable
- Anger towards what could have prevented the situation
- Frustration that the 2024 CrossFit Games turned into a nightmare
As the collective CrossFit community, I am stuck not knowing what to think, or what to feel. We are all just wishing that this was a dream…
Shifting focus. How do we come back to love?
I continue to drive and contemplate. The only thing I know for certain, is that all of these thoughts stem from the one true emotion of LOVE. Another thing I know for certain is that these emotions will dwell us in the darkness moments of what was, holding us back from the light that can be what can become.
In essence, the CrossFit Games are supposed to be a celebration of the fittest in the world. The Games are the pinnacle of a six month experience since the CrossFit Open. It has evolved to become a festival of opportunity to bring together our global CrossFit community. The Games are truly a spectacle and admiration of the Fittest individuals on our planet, literally!
Yet, we are all stuck in our hearts and souls by tragedy. The one commonality we all possess in the #HERE and now is grief. This is the emotion that feels so deviated from love, but still so grounded in the consciousness of love.
Although all of our spectrum of feelings are real, grief has the powerful potential to transmute our BEing into the most natural state, which is love. There is also a unique essence of grief in comparison to our other emotions. Grief becomes authentic to our soul’s expression, yet connects us to all others who feel the same. This is both a blessing and a curse, as we have the free will to recognize we are all unique, yet all one collective consciousness.
Click to refer to -“The Frequency of Love”
Finding light during our Darkest Moment
My wisdom with understanding death is that this dark concept only leads to one aftermath, which is the opportunity of rebirth.
- A Rebirth of a love and gratitude for our closest friends and family
- A Rebirth from our mistakes
- A Rebirth of a community that truly speaks to oneness
- A Rebirth of a widened perspective towards life
- A Rebirth of awareness towards grief
- A Rebirth of an experience for the soul to evolve
This is the hard part to grasp…
Tragedy, pain and suffering is the fortunate component of our soul contract. The most difficult concept is that our contract’s do not have a script on how to manage these dark entities. Therefore, there is no outline or timeline on these possibilities. After many difficult times in my life, I have surrendered, and accepted that our souls are designed to have these obstacles in our path, only to unfold when we least expect. Only by free will do we have the empowerment to create a reality that holds enlightenment and rebirth from the unknown and unknowable.
The difficult component to grasp is that rebirth will not bring back Lazar Dukic. It will however, allow his soul’s intention to provide us this powerful source of light into our lives. We may not recognize this anytime soon, but time will present the opportunity for us to discover love, light and oneness.
The Bigger Wisdom of 8/8/2024
A powerful evolution towards our CrossFit community?
My intuitive speculation is to not bring forth a triggering response towards a tragedy. My primary goal is to inspire hope as we mourn and grieve. As for the future of CrossFit, there is much to be unknown. The beauty of the community grieving as one has the potential to transmute to collective love. Unfortunately, the state of the CrossFit Games detrimental. and the physical loss of Lazar is permanent. In both retrospect and hereafter, this weekend confirmed the superpower of gratitude in my personal life, and for CrossFit MFP. My wisdom as a Shaman only seeks to send love, and light to all our CrossFit community as a whole.
Lazar, may your soul continue its journey onward until its next reincarnation. You are now more alive than ever before! I express infinite gratitude to you for your lessons taught to our community when manifested on earth, and more importantly for your lessons rebirthed to us forevermore.
Two days prior (8/6/24), I recorded an Episode for the #JustShowUp podcast to reminisce upon the excitement for the 2024 Games.
MFP Education Center 
Leave a comment