Ah, the sweet bliss that is 5 days off from school for holiday break. I had a wonderful time with my family over two Christmas brunches and now have very little on my agenda…so I will share a few things I’m lovin’ these days…

• Raw Kale Salad. I have made my own based on a whole foods model. (Tahini, Olive Oil, Garlic, Braggs Aminos, Salt, Pepper, and Lemon Juice)

The Christmas Eve sermon last night at St. John’s Episcopal Church-Norwood in Chevy Chase, MD was absolutely perfect. It was exactly what I needed to hear at the cap of an absolutely crazy, financially inconvenient (devastating…), stressful, and whelming week. I will not recap fully but suffice to say my mind was focused on the car in the shop and the dog in the hospital a lot more than in was preparing for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. My entire sense of advent mystery was gone in a flash with “life”.

Fr. Sari Ateek preached about the inconvenience surrounding Jesus’ birth. He brought to light the truly challenging circumstances in which God came to life on Earth. Mary-an unwed mother, Joseph-a righteous carpenter, angels making proclamations and generally freaking people out, riding across the desert on a donkey as a 15 year old, 8 months pregnant woman, labor in the middle of nowhere….you get the gist. God did not claim that the life he was bringing into the world was one that would be easy. He brought the life, in the body of Jesus, to the world so that we would never lose sight of His message. God is  with us. Emmanuel-God with Us.

So it is from this message that I came to re-affirm God’s presence in the “inconveniences” of life. Be they replacing seals on a transmission, working through challenges of weight gain and exercise, pulling together family gatherings, or fighting cancer, coping with divorce, or paying the rent with two pennies and prayer. God is always present. God is always with us. We may not always choose to acknowledge His presence, but He is ready for us, whenever we are ready. He did not promise us an easy life through faith; but He always promises the greatest promise and gives the greatest gift-Himself.

Merry Christmas.

 

This weekend I had the delight and pleasure to join my family for a jaunt to the National Christmas Tree. We headed out in the brisk Washington, D.C. evening to visit Santa, look at the glorious lights, and enjoy a meal together. We walked The Extra Mile on our way to dinner and delighted in learning about volunteers in the US who made an impact on their community and nation. This was a fantastic evening of shivers, hugs, running, and the beauty of two little girls laughing. These girls are hilarious and smart and so many positive things. They are such a delight to me. Almost 9 years ago, I became an Aunt and getting to know these two little humans is such a great pleasure. They have been masterfully raised by their mother, my sister, to be polite, curious, adventurous, and thoughtful girls. I am so blessed to know them.

Today I joined 20,000 other poor souls for the Hot Chocolate 15k (and 5k) held in National Harbor.  This race was a gift from dbf and I was super excited to go to a themed race about my favorite dessert item. I didn’t really pay much attention to the details until this last week when we were finalizing carpools and planning packet pick ups. I kind of figured that any race going to NH (one way in and one way out) that required advanced parking passes at 10 bucks extra and necessitated carpooling was going to be a  bit of a clusterf. Boy was I right….I won’t get into the details but I will just pass along this little link. (I will also highlight that I had a lovely and wonderful time commuting to and from the race with two amazing MMTC ladies, MS and AK. They made my day! And that our packets were graciously picked up by SM from the club, who picked up like 30 packets!!!)

As my cold, wimpy muscles were dealing with the hills, the automotive congestion in the first five miles, the rocks, and the lack of aid stations, I started to think about “how can I be thankful for all the good of this day” and so here goes….

I have two legs, two arms, two eyes, a heart, two lungs, two ears, 10 fingers, 10 toes, a brain, and two ample breasts that all work relatively well and are cancer-free. I can say that I know lots of people who cannot say the same about one or more of all of these things. I get up in the morning sometimes before dawn and walk a dog. I run on a treadmill. I see beautiful art. I hear amazing music. I type with my fingers and wiggle my toes. I use my non-stop adhd brain all day long and my heart beats a happy beat of anxiety on a regular basis to remind me I’m alive. And let’s just say the ample, cancer-free breasts have always been the highlight of others ogling and/or jokes…

So despite all of the crazy of the morning and the abuse that my body takes because of poor food or lack of exercise, I am so grateful for it. I put this body through a lot and I push it beyond its happiness on a regular basis. It reminds me of its distaste with aches, pains, gastrointestinal distress, and anxiousness often, but all of those things continue to remind me that I am alive. And that, my friends, is something for which to be grateful.

November was a great month in my Facebook feed. Each day many friends posted their daily gratefulness leading up to Thanksgiving. Each was so wonderful to feel abundant thanks in the midst of chatter. Now we are on to the anticipatory season of Advent, I want to keep this sense of gratitude moving forward. I don’t know if I can really make it daily, but I’d like to try. I’m a little bit behind as Advent II is this weekend but better late than never.

I am already so tired of the hustle and bustle of Christmas. The focus on presents, purchasing, sales, consumerism. Even the over done lights have caused me to be a bit Grinchy this season thus far. I fight my own demons with consumerism and am not saying presents or lights are bad, I just feel the scales are way out of balance. I’d like a little more church a little less macy’s this year.

To get things kicked off right for DDG (Daily Dose of Gratitude), I’m going to share the words of my freshman year roomie from Hudson C116. Jealaine Marple is a pastor within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I have followed her ministerial path with envy and delight but this video is the first time I’ve heard her preach. Her unique blend of humor and profundity remind us that we have all the gifts we ever need. Oh the waiting of Advent….I am so grateful for you and your gifts.

Jealaine Marple-A Season of Waiting

On this day of Thanks, I offer a list of all of the things for which I beseech my humblest and most joyful gratefulness,

I give thanks for…

A great and awesome God who daily provides me comfort, challenge, and hope as I constantly fall short of His will for me.

A loving, patient, and forgiving family. They offer wisdom, humor, love, and kindness as I slowly grow on this life journey. Our re-definitions can only multiply love. And without love, we are nothing.

A loving, patient, funny, and lovely partner in life. He offers me support and calm in the midst of any storm. He doesn’t ever mention all the weight I have gained or judge my inability to break free from coca cola. He is a great co-parent to our beloved muggle pup.

A super great muggle pup. He is a mix of cuddling love, rambunctious delight, and encouragement to exercise.

Two hilarious, intelligent, and beautiful nieces. They are daily in my heart and prayers as they learn and grow into amazing humans.

Friends, near and far, who always remind me of who I am and where I have come from. I will forever be grateful for them and constantly wish they lived closer.

A challenging, fun, rewarding, and affirming job, co-workers, and the best boss I’ve ever encountered. I pray that I continue to learn and grow to make an impact in the lives of children.

The daily basics of life. Food, shelter, heat, and the abundant blessings I so easily take for granted in a world full of consumerism.

A healthy body. I have not treated it well this last year but especially after last weekend I offer my thanks for a body that continues to function even when it is abused by inactivity and processed food.

There are so many blessings that abound within my life. I am happy, healthy, and free. I feel loved and often respected. I pray that I continually offer my gratitude for these gifts and remain ever humble in my life and work. I pray so deeply for those who are without this day, those who are infirm in body or mind, and those who find themselves without a table today. Finally, I pray for forgiveness from my missteps in word or deed and offer thanks for a loving, forgiving God and His redemption.

May you be blessed today dear reader with love, family, a full belly, and a content heart.

Can you really have a taper if you haven’t actually trained? As previously confessed, this has not been my greatest training session ever, perhaps my second worst. (My first worst being my first marathon training session in which my longest run was 14 miles….) I have done two 16 mile long runs, so that is good. But nothing over that, no speed work, and minimal week day runs. So, can I really call this last two weeks a taper? Or just more of the same. My long run will be shorter and I’m walking more with Parker during the week than running, but at this point, I can’t train harder and be ready. So I’m just declaring my readiness.

This should be a hoot.

My 11th marathon is in 5 weeks. The furthest I have run is 16 miles. I have done no speed work, no tempo work, and in the last 3 weeks, have run less during the week than my long run. My nutrition has been absolute crap; darn you halloween candy! Oh, and have I mentioned that every time I step down with my left foot a sharp shooting pain runs up to my arse?? Yeah, this is gonna hurt.

Why am I doing this? Because my awesome little sister is running her first marathon and I want to be with her. She may kick my butt along the way, but I intend to stay with her for every step. I have not been a role model of good training in any way. But I am a game day player and I know that come race day, 26.2 miles will come out of my body come hell or high water.

This is not my preferred method of training. In my newbie and faster days, I followed a schedule complete with hills, track, tempo, and methodical long runs. Now, I’m at my slowest, my heaviest, my least fit, and I fully recognize that marathon training cannot be a crash course. I can’t all of a sudden up my mileage to 40 mile weeks and expect that I will show up healthy. Rather, I’m going to eek out one 20 and hope for the best.

Why do I put this all out to the cyber world? I suppose as a confessional that sometimes we don’t train for races but we do them anyway. Perhaps, this post will give someone else in my shoes comfort that their training is less than perfect and they are not alone? I’m not sure. Or maybe it is that amidst the exhortations on facebook of race and workout PR’s and high mileage etc.  that I wanted to be honest. This was not the best time for me to run a marathon, but I’m doing to do it anyway. And it’s gonna hurt and I embrace that with gusto. For another training session will come and with it, a chance to do it better next time.

 

I had the pleasure of running a 15 miler a few weekends ago with my little sister. She is training for her first marathon and I signed up to be her “pacer”. As a veteran of 10 training cycles for marathons, I figured I would be able to stay strong for her if she needed me.

Well, after this run it is clear to me that the tables have turned. She is in amazing shape. She ran the longest run of her life like it was no big deal. She barely needed nutrition or water and was chipper for the rest of the day after our run. It made me so proud.

Fast forward to last weekend, we lined up at the Rock n Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon to run our first 13.1 together since her first all the way back in 2004. My goal for the day, try to keep up with her until I passed out and couldn’t make it anymore. Her goal for the day, 2:10. We happened to write these goals on the outside window of Lululemon so they were “real”. She realized after our preparations that she had left her watch at home so I handed her the Garmin and made the decision to go clock free. (It was incredibly liberating to “not know” my pace the entire time. I knew I was working really hard and that it hurt, but I just kept going.) My little sister was incredible, she maintained an incredibly strong pace for the entire race, even through the hot sun on MLK Drive and up the big hill to the art museum. We clocked through the finish line at 2:08:48 (for 13.44 miles due to weaving). It was awesome to see both of us meet our goals for the day. For her, beating her PR by 9 minutes. For me, keeping up and running my best time in 3 years.

What an amazing gift to have a little sister who takes the lead role and shows incredible strength. I am blessed.

Things are kind of crazy today. So I’m going to let Natalie Grant speak for me.

It is such a blessing to have musicians, authors, artists…who can speak for us when we don’t have the words within us.