Category Archives: Mental Fitness

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Dolly’s Ambitions: A Tribute to Ammon and Carter

. Dolly Parton, Education, Family, friends, HOSA, Mental Fitness, Parenting, writing . , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy September 2026. I have not posted a blog in two years. After Dolly Parton’s death, I returned to my blog to share my initial heartbreak and thoughts; however, WordPress, the blog platform, had locked me out. Why? Well, the email I had used since I first created the blog was obsolete. The email provider was exclusive to our area of Ooltewah, yet not a provider here in our area of Knox County. The process to change the parent email to blog took over two weeks, y’all!

The process finally ended today, September 12. I was ecstatic. I wanted to dedicate my return blog to Dolly…. but something changed this morning. First, I want to blog ASAP so I will not lose the momentum. Second, I have several blog posts semi-ready for Dolly but not quite, so… Dolly is going to help me praise and lift up my most precious gifts, Carter and Ammon, in this blog. This morning  they just took another round of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We brought them home after the test, and I began to clean the kitchen countertops. Near the coffee pot is a wooden, Dolly quote “Cup of Ambition” and two cute cups where another household member and I could share a cup of coffee together. My mother, Georgie Caylor, saws these sweet Dolly knick-knacks several years ago, and she bought them for our kitchen. My mother has been a Dolly Parton fan for nearly 60 years. I have been a fan for over 55 years.

Mamaw (Georgie Caylor) Bought this coffee set for us several years ago. As you can see the wooden “Cup of Ambition” and the cute, clear coffee cups with butterflies and Dolly’s signature.

Folks, I love and appreciate Ammon and Carter’s “ambition” to be both successful high school students as well as future pre-med and medical students. They also have such wonderful hearts for creating useful organizations and serving others. They have made their high school chapter of their HOSA https://hosa.org/ club grow by leaps and bounds. They were the only underclassmen to qualify for the 2025 international convention, and this year, Carter finished as #10 Internationally in his category of Nutrition. They have helped create their chapter of the National Science Club and they are co-presidents of the school’s Model United Nations. They are also very instrumental in driving their high school Key Club (service club) activities for its community. These two busy Beavers (pun intended… its their school mascot) will be sending in applications for prospective universities quite soon, and we are all anxious to see what God has in store for them.

As Carter and Ammon ambitiously step into their senior year and begin the journey of applying to colleges and universities, our hearts are so full. We are incredibly grateful for the bright, ambitious young adults they’ve grown into and for all the love and support you all have poured upon them since birth.

This next chapter brings big decisions, high hopes, and plenty of stress. Sean and I would be so deeply grateful if you would keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this season—for clarity as they choose where to apply, peace of mind through the waiting, and confidence in wherever their paths lead next.

Thank you for loving them alongside Sean and me! God is Great, and so are you all. Oh, and thanks, Dolly, for helping me connect your beautiful, heart-filled “ambition” to Ammon and Carter’s ambitions.

Haven Caylor-Brown's avatar

Old Fart Fitness-Extended, Blog Version

. Fitness, Mental Fitness, Physical Fitness, Spiritual Fitness . , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I love exercising (LOW IMPACT), and I have all my life. My body wasn’t designed for sprinting, but years ago I discovered that walking was good for my fat. As a middle-aged, overweight adult, I discovered that I burned more calories especially if I was trying to lose weight… like for the 1000th time in my life … if I jogged.

=>Tangent: you wonderful friends who say my body is just fine, I SO MUCH appreciate that, but according to age, height, & body size crap, I’m 10 pounds overweight. I’m 145 yet I should weigh 135 … I digress <=

Since Sean and I moved to our house and property here in 2004, we’ve taken advantage of our fields to keep a periphery mowed for a jogging/walking track. It is awesome, and the whole route takes approximately 12 minutes to complete. However, we appreciate diverse surroundings. Weather permitting, Carter, Ammon, Sean, and I also walk as a family every day and in various, surrounding locations. We walk approximately an hour. HOWEVER, Walking doesn’t help me lose weight, and if I choose to indulge a bit, I gain weight while STILL walking an hour every day. So, poor ol’ Haven who destroyed his metabolism by abusing his body with crash diets over 35 years ago needs to jog to help burn extra calories. The best part is that I do enjoy jogging especially in nature. When I jog by myself, it’s an introspective treat. Jogging invigorates my body, mind, and spirit whether in the hills of Southeast Tennessee, on the beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, on sidewalks along the shores of the River Thames in London, England, or down the Medieval streets of Gdansk, Poland.

I recently started watching some YouTube videos for the mind and body. The soul is still filled with prayer and daily Bible study with God’s word…. Haven’t used YouTube for the soul any. A mind over body motivational speaker, David Goggins, is on both YouTube and Instagram. I understand his motivational speaking and even SOME of his cursing because sometimes a good curse word has an IMPACT no other synonym can match. His motivation to me says, “Get up & Get at it! Stop the whining refuse (arrrgh, I want to curse!) and excuses!”   This “Get up & Get at it” is all about mind, body, and soul (my relationship with God) for Haven, but, for today’s entry, I’m sticking to the topic of PHYSICAL/CARDIO EXERCISE.

At some point every day, my lower back hurts, my right knee hurts (it has off and on for almost 20 years… Sean say’s it my meniscus), my right shoulder hurts,  and I have a 3 feet long varicose vein on my left leg that looks HORRENDOUS like disfigured looking- yet not the least bit painful. LOL. Like David Goggins discusses staring at his running shoes before he runs, I do the same: it’s like an event. This event sometimes takes 10 minutes to complete. I look at the socks, I put on the socks, I look at the shoes (sometimes boots), I tie the shoes, and I sit. I prefer jogging in the mornings. Honestly, my lower back and legs are sore the majority of the mornings, and if I have my coffee first then wait an hour, the process goes a lot more smoothly and happily. Now, after saying that, I don’t want to wait 2 hours after getting up to run. I want to do it as early as possible. Okay, okay…. Moving along… I’ve had my YouTube channel for 10 years, and after watching some mind and body influencers on it, I decided that this 55 years old fart, Haven Caylor-Brown, could diversity his YouTube channel and socialize with other old farts regarding their physical, mental, and spiritual fitness.

DANG! Those are MONSTER Crows’ Feet! Geez!

This morning I jogged for 1 hour and 5 minutes. It was 4.47 miles, and I burned 662 calories. It was awesome, and I have been jogging this route at Enterprise South for about 2 weeks now jogging it 3 times a week. There are plenty of spacious, paved roads with sights (deer, foxes, trees, squirrels, chipmunks, & birds) and sounds of nature, but the ground of the wooded paths are “padded”, and much easier on my knees, legs, and lower back. I do hope my jogging adventures will inspire / influence some folks to get some cardio exercise or exercise more, and as the days and weeks go by, I will be using my jogging and walking videos to weave some mental and spiritual thoughts, inspirations, and positive influences as well.