RunSingTeach

 There have been many books over the years that have helped guide and shape my faith. It was very hard to find 10 and if you can count in the picture below you’ll see that there are more than 10. However, three are versions of the Bible and two are a series, so technically, I’ve hit the mark. I read a lot of books about Christianity when I first started exploring my personal faith in a deeper way in college. I credit many friends for suggestions and Family Christian Stores in Missouri and Kansas for my 10% off card. So here we go…

1. The Bible. My preferred translation is the New Revised Standard Version. Mumay gave me this bible when I went to college. I also like Eugene Peterson’s The Message for its modern language and Rob Lacey’s Word on the Street to delve into a little hip-hop with Jesus.
2. Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. I completed this year long study from January 1, 2001 (just after I finished college) and completed it on December 31, 2001. Talk about a year of change! Whew! This had me explore and reflect in a very methodical way.
3. Young Children and Worship and Following Jesus by Jerome Berryman and Sonja Stewart. These books were my “scripts” as a teacher of Godly Play in San Diego. I love the way that the stories allow young children to experience the stories of God in a way that meets them where they are. I use the phrases, “I Wonder” and “We Have All the Time We Need” almost every day as a teacher.
4. The Five Love Languages (for Singles) by Gary Chapman. I have read the singles version and the regular version and I find these books to be invaluable tools for learning to communicate with a partner or loved one. In case you are wondering, I receive best with Acts of Service and I give best in Words of Affirmation. 🙂
5. Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs. Ok, the book was just a catalyst. I read this as a part of the women’s bible study group at my church at the time and the fellowship that I had with those women stays with me years later. The stories of the book were good and introduced me to women I didn’t know well, especially in the OT, but it was the present, living women in the group that nourished my soul.
6. Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris. Pretty much a must-read for all those gals out there looking for a Mr. Right when they should be developing THEMSELVES! (This is the “sequel” to I Kissed Dating Goodbye”)
7. The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra. Such a wise book. I have never finished it because reading each page takes so much intellectual effort. It is wonderful.
8. The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho. Technically a fiction novel but the way that Coelho weaves the story of Elijah through his prose is so very profound. If you loved The Alchemist (as I did) you MUST read The Fifth Mountain.
9. The Episcopal Handbook. As a cradle Episcopalian this book is an absolute HOOT. You get your doctrine and prayers from the BCP but you get your laughs and secrets from the handbook.
10. In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado. In the spring of 1999, two nice college girls had a homestay on choir tour at a “famous Christian author’s” house. Feeling sheepish, we snuck into a bookstore because we didn’t know who he was. Well, he was Max and his family provided a lovely shelter for us in San Antonio while we were on our spring tour. Motivated by saying I “knew” him, I read this book first. It completely changed my mindset about the role of faith and its lessons about the grace of God are with me every day. It was not the last of Max’s books I would read but it is always the first one I recommend.

Well there you go, ten in all. Tomorrow….nerdy teacher books!

One of the beauties of  my stay-cation this week is the endless time I can meander through blogs and links. Via instagr.am, I think, today I found several blogs all completing a similar series called “10 Books a Day”. The root of this appears to be a gal called Sarah a pretty cool seeming chick from Canada (eh). I have read a few of the posts featuring a week of 10 books a day within a given theme. The folks out there and there have read some neat stuff. Heck, I’m on vacation and I have a house full of books. So, I’m jumping in too! Since I’m a little late in my start, I’m only going to do 5 days. Here are my themes:

Tuesday: Books that Shaped My Faith

Wednesday: Nerdy Teacher Books that All Teachers Should Read

Thursday: Books that remind me of how awesome life was a kid

Friday: Books that helped me learn to be an athlete

Saturday: Favorite Fiction of All Time

I may get motivated later in the week and add more but we’ll just have to wait and see. I love reading so much and I hope you do too! Get reading!

SOURCE

I’m not exactly sure how I stumbled upon She Reads Truth but for the past six days or so I’ve been spending a lot of time with “them”. I found they had a 21 Day Bible Study Plan called “living the surrendered life” via the YouVersion site/iPhone app. I like this app a lot so I found my way into reading a snippet from the Bible every day, reflecting, and then sharing my reflections on instagr.am  with the hashtag #shereadstruth. Through it I have entered into a new community of women who are reading and studying the same passages and reflecting upon them using social media to share their journey. Personally, I’m writing my notes in evernote, of course, and being inspired to create things to share on instagram as I don’t “paper journal” much anymore.

I am a bit different than most of the women completing this journey. First, I don’t have kids or a husband. And I work outside the home. And I’m not an evangelical Christian (in a conservative or fundamentalist sense). However, I find that seeing the reflections of these women and relating them to my own life is natural. I don’t say it a lot here on RST as I tend to focus on the running bit but I do love Jesus and I do seek His wisdom and His path. This is the biggest piece I share with the women of #shereadstruth. We are safe to enter this open community with the shared goal of trusting in God’s work in our lives.

Most of these verses we are looking at are not new and they are not particularly new messages about waiting patiently, speaking gently, and living in faith. However, as the school year and “life” steam rolls on, I often neglect the most important studies I can complete. I neglect the stillness. I neglect the quiet. My mind gets so full that I go on what I’m calling “hyper multi-task” where I stop living fully with the humans around me. I stop listening, not intentionally, but out of a severe need to process slowly. I hope dearly that in these 21 days I can take the time to break with the distracted mania and reflect upon the very basics of being. Even if only for a few minutes a day. And for this, I am so grateful to have found this community. Providence for sure.

 

Today I am grateful for so many things. 8 hours at the store without electricity serving customers reminded me that I’m blessed with TWO jobs. An hourish visit with a great sister-friend reminds me that I’m blessed with AMAZING friends. Home cooked dinner when I got home reminds me that I’m blessed with an INCREDIBLE partner in crime. And finally, I enjoy writing from my computer in my apartment which is powered by electricity and air-conditioning. I am blessed beyond imagination.

On days when I get selfish (every day?), I must always get the reality check that my life is full. I live in a place of abundance that some could never even fathom. For this I offer my highest praise and my humblest thanks.

 

Title IX. Making it possible for girls like me to be ATHLETES for the last 40 years. I offer my praise and gratitude to those who hit the courts, pavement, fields, and links before 1972 despite all odds.

Today is National Running Day. It is also four days shy of my 10-year anniversary with running. On June 10, 2002, I was living in Kansas City, MO and teaching in an awesome school district. I came home at the end of each day around 4:30 and found myself making early dinner and doing very little in my evenings. It was a simple life. I saw friends from college and was in the praise band at church. I prepped my lessons, went to new teacher meetings, and volunteered at the Lyric Opera, but I was not particularly active. At age 23, this didn’t have too much of an impact on my waistline and I was certainly happy.

But on that particularly lovely Kansas City day I realized, “what am I doing here at 5 in the afternoon, eating dinner in my pajamas?” It had to change. So I put on some athletic-ish type clothes, some old sneaks and went to the park. I thought, “this is short, I can run around it once.” Ha! I made it about a minute before I felt like I would die. So walking, mixed with a bit of jogging and a new lifestyle had begun. I ran my first 5k that summer (running the whole thing, I mean) and stepped into Feet First for the first time where a fella named Jack sold me my first pair of Mizuno Wave Riders. I shuffled around my parents neighborhood that summer and tried running on the B&A Trail. Then the goal struck me, “hey, I can do a marathon…??!!” So I looked for marathons and found one called “Flying Pig”. Anyone who knows me that I have a big of an affinity for our porcine friends, so that was it! I had no idea about the course, or how to train, I just liked the name.

Fast forward through the next 9 months. I was on an opera fellowship so I lived in three cities, LA (loved running in Echo Park, ran my first 10K), Austin (ran the Austin 8K and fell in LOVE with the city and Town Lake), and finally as fate would have it, Cincinnati, home to the Flying Pig Marathon just 8 weeks into my stint at that company. I learned so much about myself that year. The first year of running HURTS. I had shin splints, IT band syndrome, and a stress fracture. I learned about good shoes, how to hold water, and that sticky stuff called Gu. On May 3rd, I toed the line with the 4:45 pacer named Star and didn’t leave her side for the next 4:42 minutes. I ate 7 GU’s (gross), had 6 ibuprofen, and had the best pigtail braids ever done up by my #1 fan, Mom. I had trained terribly, my longest run was 14 miles. Every single inch of me hurt afterwards, but as I crossed that finish line with tears in my eyes, I felt re-born. I felt like I had built a new lifestyle. I had run a marathon.

Well fast forward 10 years, 10 more marathons, coaching adults and kids, working at that awesome running store, mix in a slew of other races, a few triathlons, and one BIG triathlon and I am so grateful to running. I have not always given it my all and sometimes I have given too much but it has made me a new person and been a sustaining force through the cross-country course of life. It has been the source of my greatest joys, strongest friendships, and biggest laughs. Even now, as I sit this national running day out with a nasty shin splint, I offer my gratitude to the running gods for such an amazing gift. I found God through running. I found Love through running. I found Me.

Thank you running. Happy Anniversary.

Let me say upfront that no where in this post am I going to compare any situation in my life to The Hunger Games other than the proletarian Katniss Everdeen‘s amazing ability to run in the woods. (Thus ends any fear that I have completely lost my mind and imagine my life in a giant game that includes the brutal killing of teenagers in order to provide entertainment to a sick and twisted regime.)

When Katniss runs she is strong; she is swift. She floats atop the leaves as if she is gliding and maneuvers over rocks and branches as if she has springs on her feet. She can run for days and she runs purposefully.

I love taking Parker running on trails and last week we happened upon the Schaeffer Farms Trails just outside Germantown. I had heard of said trails but wasn’t exactly sure where to find them, so when were were on the back end of a trail in a nearby park, we jumped at the opportunity to run a bit on those trails. We went back today after a particularly stressful work day and ran again. We extended our run and did the “white loop”. After yesterday’s rain today’s trails were a little muddy but that made it all the more fun.

Running with Parker is awesome. He acts almost like an Iditarod sled dog. He loves to jump out in front (while tethered to my waist) and run up the hills with gusto. He leads the way. We jump over rocks and branches. Hop through stump cut-outs and slosh through mud. He makes running effortless and freeing. It feels great to be running again. I have a long way to go to re-gain speed and strength and lose a ridiculous amount of gained weight, but I already feel happier. Strong. Purposeful. Just like my gal Katniss….sort of.

1.  We had Bocce League last night and let me just tell you, I love it. I may stink at throwing any form of object and trying to make contact or proximity with another object, but I can sure have fun doing it. It is nice to have  a social activity unrelated to running or triathlon. Branching out is good!

“Well Done!

2.  This has been a rough week in our community for cyclists. We have had two fatal crashes this week. One of whom is the father of one of my former students. I pray that we will keep all cyclists and their families in our prayers this week and that we as motorists are constantly vigilant of those around us.

3.  I have run twice this week. I did 20 minutes on the flat, soft surface on Wednesday and about 3 miles yesterday on a bike path. Both times I’ve noticed changes in my feet/legs as I attempt to use my Newtons. I think I’m also having residual effect from wearing my Merrell Wonder Gloves as my daytime shoe at school. My shins are a bit “splinty” and my feet feel sore, but in a good way. Lucky Fin is still hurting, but too bad! We are running.

4. Parker has had a better week at home this week. He We had a good lesson with his  our trainer on Tuesday. As Ken would say, he’s almost a B+ dog.

5. Tomorrow is the Annual Falcon 5k. I am totally out-of-shape. However, if being there means I get to see some of my former students, then it is totally worth it! I am so depressingly out of shape and I need action. I hope that running a few days a week will make a difference.

The last time I was a real runner was January 29th. I ran a half marathon and went home with the worst pain in my foot in a long time. Off to the doc and the rest is history. Yesterday, April 30th, was my first “run” in 12 weeks. I ran approximately 2 miles as slow as possible, paying close attention to my form. It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful, crisp morning and I was in Saint Michael’s, MD, a lovely bayside town. It felt great to be running and I was energized throughout the day. I cannot say my foot feels completely better. Somedays it is quite sore and I can feel the pain right in the center of the breakpoint. I’m not immediately jumping into marathon training, right now I just have to rebuild strength and endurance, but I don’t think I can wait any longer.

It’s time. Time to run. Who’s with me?