Sunday, September 30, 2012
Flo sets the pace
I don't know about how you
start out your days, but i would wonder what a webcam placed in your home at 5:30AM would show to the world. Some of clearly are jump out of bed kind of
people and others of us are, shall we say, slow starters.
Well,
it is for those slow starters of us that this particular quality of Flo as a
running partner is notable.
Many
times, i start out and my joints are stiff and my body is arguing with being
awake, my 3 times operated on knee is yelling that it is too cold and too early
and i should just go back to bed. But,
once the harness and leash come out, Flo will not hear of it. She will whine and jump and dance, like a 3
year old who has held their potty too long.
And, once out on the road, she is even more excited it seems. She immediately sets the pace at much faster
than i would go without her. She pulls
and tugs and yanks me along the first 1/2 mile, until my older than i want it
to be body is loosened up and ready to runs just as fast as she wants to take
me. It's a good thing she sets this
pace, because i think there would be some times i might just be walking if it
weren't for her - and where would my fitness and advancement and health get
from not pushing forward?
So,
here's the point. All of us need
someones in our lives that help us keep up the pace. Let's face it many of us are not ready to get
up and get going into something More of life, we are just barely ready to get
up and do all we can to pay the bills and take care of the bare essentials in
each day. It is good to have a
"Flo" who is urging us on and helping us see that bare survival, like
just barely shuffling our feet in our run, is not all there is. But even those of us who wake ambitious and
are ready to go into whatever our day and life holds, tackling all the problems
that come our way in each moment, often go the wrong way. We find ourselves running after every
distracting problem that comes along, never really staying on pace in the
things that matter - in these times it is nice to have a "Flo" who
can drag us back to the correct path and keep the pace toward something More.
If you
are sick and tired of not knowing what to do with life, feeling as if there
must be something More than just the "life as usual" of this life we
lead...If you are looking for some "Flo's" who are heading toward
something More...we would love to have you join us at More than more. We will be hanging out this Thursday,
October 4th, from 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister
Recreation Center,
just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. Hope to run with you there!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Love Your Feet and Medical Outreach
Hey everyone! We will be having a medical outreach next Tuesday, October 2nd, from 3-7pm, downtown Lafayette, at the YWCA - if you can think of anything that would be a good way to honor and help those waiting on the doctor see that they matter, let us know.
Also, October 25th, Thursday, will be our annual Love Your Feet outreach - this will be from 8am to 430PM and afterwards will be dinner and usually campfire at the Hendrick's. This year will be at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler, Lafayette. We will be setting up Wednesday evening the 24th, stay tuned for the time. We will be giving away new shoes - tennis shoes for adults and boots or shoes for kids - 3 per family max. If we have supply, we may be able to accommodate special requests, but in general, the goal is to help people who cannot afford decent shoes to get something on their feet that is new and durable.
Here are the times:
Shoe distribution will be conducted by last name
A.M. SIGN UP:
• A-I sign up from 8:30-9:15 a.m. •
• J-R sign up from 9:30-10:15 a.m. •
• S-Z sign up from 10:30-11:15 a.m. •
P.M. PICK UP:
• A-I pick up from 1:15-2:00 p.m. •
• J-R pick up from 2:15-3:00 p.m. •
• S-Z pick up from 3:15-4:00 p.m. •
We need lots of help - last year we gave away 700 pairs of shoes and boots!!! It is a blast to be able to provide help to those in our community who need it and even more to be able to communicate that real people, in their own town, care enough about them to spend their day and their own money doing something to help them out. To many of them this means so much!!
If you plan to be there for all or part of the day, we need to know - please let Melissa know asap. And if you do not have a Mtm outreach shirt, please let us know too, when you let us know you are coming, so we can get you one!!
Hope to see you there!
Also, October 25th, Thursday, will be our annual Love Your Feet outreach - this will be from 8am to 430PM and afterwards will be dinner and usually campfire at the Hendrick's. This year will be at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler, Lafayette. We will be setting up Wednesday evening the 24th, stay tuned for the time. We will be giving away new shoes - tennis shoes for adults and boots or shoes for kids - 3 per family max. If we have supply, we may be able to accommodate special requests, but in general, the goal is to help people who cannot afford decent shoes to get something on their feet that is new and durable.
Here are the times:
Shoe distribution will be conducted by last name
A.M. SIGN UP:
• A-I sign up from 8:30-9:15 a.m. •
• J-R sign up from 9:30-10:15 a.m. •
• S-Z sign up from 10:30-11:15 a.m. •
P.M. PICK UP:
• A-I pick up from 1:15-2:00 p.m. •
• J-R pick up from 2:15-3:00 p.m. •
• S-Z pick up from 3:15-4:00 p.m. •
We need lots of help - last year we gave away 700 pairs of shoes and boots!!! It is a blast to be able to provide help to those in our community who need it and even more to be able to communicate that real people, in their own town, care enough about them to spend their day and their own money doing something to help them out. To many of them this means so much!!
If you plan to be there for all or part of the day, we need to know - please let Melissa know asap. And if you do not have a Mtm outreach shirt, please let us know too, when you let us know you are coming, so we can get you one!!
Hope to see you there!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Flo's distractions...or my distractions
I have this dog - her name is Flo - overall she's a pretty good dog - except for the fact that she doesn't like to be bothered around her food, or her kennel - we figure that's her space, but we're trying to train her to trust everyone in her space too, but that is not really the point and i get i should get back on track...
So Flo and I run together - about every other day, we get out in the neighborhood and enjoy some fresh air. Flo loves to go on runs together. In fact, when i get her running leash out and her harness, she starts to freak out, whining and prancing around as if she were Cinderella heading to the ball.
We sort of have this ritual of the way it works, i get the leash and the harness, she whines and prances, then i try to train her to hold still enough to let me actually put it on her. Out through the garage and into the drive, where she races to the edge of her invisible fence (which doesn't work even though she doesn't know it - as i have written about before). There i have to pick her up and carry her 65#'s over the imaginary line of the nonfunctioning invisible fence so she doesn't think she can run across it and then sit her down, sometimes less than gracefully, on the driveway. Thus beginning Flo's opportunity to drag me on the first 1/2 of the run.
Now there are 4 things i would like to share with you about our runs - the first in this post and the second, third, and fourth to follow in the next posts...
As we run, her tugging the crap out of my arm, and me no doubt running faster than i would without her, we move thru the streets of my neighborhood, usually early in the morning before most of the people are awake.
This morning was a bit different though - i slept far later than usual - and that meant that the run was, let's say, different.
You see, there were at least 4 dogs in their yards, behind their invisible fences, that we encountered on our run.
Here's the thing, as Flo comes up to another dog, they bark at her...loudly. They follow along the boundaries of their invisible fences, saying something in dog language, not really sure what but it is forceful and intense. And Flo listens, she is excited, she is dancing around and running toward them. She wants to go into their yards and interact with these other dogs, to make friends, or to fight battles, i am not sure. But this i do know: we are on a run. This is not a play date or a war opportunity. This is a run and we are going a direction and we will continue to go on that direction. You know what else? Flo doesn't just run after dogs, she runs away from sprinklers and chases birds. She hears every noise and sees every flit of movement. She reminds me of the dogs in the Disney movie, Up, who are constantly being distracted by squirrels! She seriously is like a kid on red bull. Her attention is just all over the place - if she didn't have the leash on her, she would be off after another distraction every 2 seconds.
Now, before i go off on another one of Flo's running tangents, let me tell you the point:
In my life, i feel like Flo a lot of the time. I set out on my day and have all this focus (truthfully sometimes i don't even start out my day focused but at least sometimes i do) - i am gonna do what's right and not get sucked into the culture of get more stuff and buy more stuff and always be the best and compete with those around me and always make people happy and get more friends and look good and never show your weaknesses and then before i know it the barking dog is someone's rejection and i feel like crap and all my focus goes out the window as i either give all i have to win back their approval or feel like dookie for letting them down...or the barking dog of competitiveness runs out at me and i feel the pressure to be the best and so i dump the focus on the really important stuff and re-apply myself to perfection or i feel the impossibility of perfection and condemn myself for my imperfections - or there goes the bird of my past hurts and they seem huge and so i run inward, hiding...convinced that no one would really want to know me if they only knew this or that and that if i risk i will simply be hurt again, totally forgetting all the trust i have built up in those adopted family members that surround me...or i hear the call of my fatigue and know that in the past my fatigue had nearly destroyed me and so i run away from commitments and closeness and investment in the things and people that really matter in this life, inward and away, protecting myself from the harm i feel is coming soon...should i go on?
In each case, i did not intend to be distracted from what is important anymore than Flo means to be distracted when we run. But, the truth is, i do get distracted, and it messes with me, my family, my world, and all those who love me. It so often destroys my ability to have joy and peace and hope and life the way that i really was meant to have it.
I want to tell you though about one of the ways i keep myself from getting distracted. There's this really cool group of people that call themselves More than more. They are all just as distractable as me. But they all want to keep their focus just like i do. We together are trying to run, together, some slower and some faster, but all of us in the same direction, toward a life that is so much More than our culture offers. And you know what? So many times when i start to get off on some funky distraction, following the culture or my pain and hurts, there is one of them right there to refocus me. One of them there to remind me where i am heading and why. One of them to bust my chops when i need it, or pick me up when i am broken hearted.
On our runs, i always remind Flo where we are going. And when i remind her, she turns and runs the direction i am running. She does this because she trusts me. I am "her master and she loves me" (another quote from Up). She knows that i will not steer her wrong and in the end, life is best following my lead. I have been loving and taking care of her since she was about 8wks old after all.
If you are sick of getting distracted, if you feel as if there must be something More in this life but you have a hard time staying focused on it, i would love to introduce you to this fantastic group of people More than more - i will be hanging out with them this coming Thursday night, September 20th, from 6:45-8:00 PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. As always there will be awesome stuff to do for kids of all ages. Hope to see you there - if you're not sure which one i am, look for the one wandering off...and please remind me that it's time to head inside!
We sort of have this ritual of the way it works, i get the leash and the harness, she whines and prances, then i try to train her to hold still enough to let me actually put it on her. Out through the garage and into the drive, where she races to the edge of her invisible fence (which doesn't work even though she doesn't know it - as i have written about before). There i have to pick her up and carry her 65#'s over the imaginary line of the nonfunctioning invisible fence so she doesn't think she can run across it and then sit her down, sometimes less than gracefully, on the driveway. Thus beginning Flo's opportunity to drag me on the first 1/2 of the run.
Now there are 4 things i would like to share with you about our runs - the first in this post and the second, third, and fourth to follow in the next posts...
As we run, her tugging the crap out of my arm, and me no doubt running faster than i would without her, we move thru the streets of my neighborhood, usually early in the morning before most of the people are awake.
This morning was a bit different though - i slept far later than usual - and that meant that the run was, let's say, different.
You see, there were at least 4 dogs in their yards, behind their invisible fences, that we encountered on our run.
Here's the thing, as Flo comes up to another dog, they bark at her...loudly. They follow along the boundaries of their invisible fences, saying something in dog language, not really sure what but it is forceful and intense. And Flo listens, she is excited, she is dancing around and running toward them. She wants to go into their yards and interact with these other dogs, to make friends, or to fight battles, i am not sure. But this i do know: we are on a run. This is not a play date or a war opportunity. This is a run and we are going a direction and we will continue to go on that direction. You know what else? Flo doesn't just run after dogs, she runs away from sprinklers and chases birds. She hears every noise and sees every flit of movement. She reminds me of the dogs in the Disney movie, Up, who are constantly being distracted by squirrels! She seriously is like a kid on red bull. Her attention is just all over the place - if she didn't have the leash on her, she would be off after another distraction every 2 seconds.
Now, before i go off on another one of Flo's running tangents, let me tell you the point:
In my life, i feel like Flo a lot of the time. I set out on my day and have all this focus (truthfully sometimes i don't even start out my day focused but at least sometimes i do) - i am gonna do what's right and not get sucked into the culture of get more stuff and buy more stuff and always be the best and compete with those around me and always make people happy and get more friends and look good and never show your weaknesses and then before i know it the barking dog is someone's rejection and i feel like crap and all my focus goes out the window as i either give all i have to win back their approval or feel like dookie for letting them down...or the barking dog of competitiveness runs out at me and i feel the pressure to be the best and so i dump the focus on the really important stuff and re-apply myself to perfection or i feel the impossibility of perfection and condemn myself for my imperfections - or there goes the bird of my past hurts and they seem huge and so i run inward, hiding...convinced that no one would really want to know me if they only knew this or that and that if i risk i will simply be hurt again, totally forgetting all the trust i have built up in those adopted family members that surround me...or i hear the call of my fatigue and know that in the past my fatigue had nearly destroyed me and so i run away from commitments and closeness and investment in the things and people that really matter in this life, inward and away, protecting myself from the harm i feel is coming soon...should i go on?
In each case, i did not intend to be distracted from what is important anymore than Flo means to be distracted when we run. But, the truth is, i do get distracted, and it messes with me, my family, my world, and all those who love me. It so often destroys my ability to have joy and peace and hope and life the way that i really was meant to have it.
I want to tell you though about one of the ways i keep myself from getting distracted. There's this really cool group of people that call themselves More than more. They are all just as distractable as me. But they all want to keep their focus just like i do. We together are trying to run, together, some slower and some faster, but all of us in the same direction, toward a life that is so much More than our culture offers. And you know what? So many times when i start to get off on some funky distraction, following the culture or my pain and hurts, there is one of them right there to refocus me. One of them there to remind me where i am heading and why. One of them to bust my chops when i need it, or pick me up when i am broken hearted.
On our runs, i always remind Flo where we are going. And when i remind her, she turns and runs the direction i am running. She does this because she trusts me. I am "her master and she loves me" (another quote from Up). She knows that i will not steer her wrong and in the end, life is best following my lead. I have been loving and taking care of her since she was about 8wks old after all.
If you are sick of getting distracted, if you feel as if there must be something More in this life but you have a hard time staying focused on it, i would love to introduce you to this fantastic group of people More than more - i will be hanging out with them this coming Thursday night, September 20th, from 6:45-8:00 PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. As always there will be awesome stuff to do for kids of all ages. Hope to see you there - if you're not sure which one i am, look for the one wandering off...and please remind me that it's time to head inside!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Tomorrow Night
Just wanted to remind you all that we will be hanging out, looking for ways to move past life as usual tomorrow night, September 6th, from 6:45-8:00pm at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.
We hope to see you there!!
We hope to see you there!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
