Yesterday was the Valentine’s concert at my daughter’s school. I guess it’s been around for 10 years, they were celebrating a decade of concerts. They are fun to watch. The kids all sing really well. It’s hard to get up on a stage, in front of family, friends, and peers and perform. I think it’s harder for some kids than others but in the end it’s always a fun thing to enjoy. We’ve enjoyed it for the last 4 years, 3 of them our daughter has gotten to sing in, last night was the last one with our sweet girl, Senior Year, boo and yay, depending on the moment.
It was a nice break, for a few hours from all the sad. Although, there’s always still a bit of sad involved in events like these. I was missing my Dad lots. I couldn’t figure out a way to get my Mom to the earlier performance and get back in time for the late performance, so that was a bummer. My Dad would have been there, of course, he never missed our important events. I also lost a gold hoop earring my Dad and Mom gave me when I was younger, maybe I’ll find it, fingers crossed.
My friend was able to go with her daughter and cheer Laina on. I was grateful she came. She came even though she lost her own Daddy less than a week ago. Friends do that for each other and I am thankful for her kindness and love to my daughter, even in the midst of her own sadness. It’s hard to find people like that these days.
For fun Valentine Concerts and sweet friends… I Give Thanks!
Long run yesterday 4.3…it was a pretty morning, we’ll aim for 5 next week. KOR
Today is the feast day of our Guardian Angels. Angel means messenger.
If you grew up Catholic then chances are you learned this prayer growing up:
“Angel of God, My Guardian dear, To Whom God’s love entrust me here, Ever this day be at my side, To light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen. “
Most Catholic kids learn this prayer by first grade. I went to a Catholic elementary school so I think I learned it in Kindergarten. The first prayer I ever learned was the Our Father and my Mom taught it to me. I remember I was kind of goofing around and she said in no uncertain terms that we do not goof around when we pray. I understood in that moment with my Mom all those years ago, prayer was important. I don’t think she actually knows that.
Angels are all throughout the bible. In Genesis 3:24, God placed an Angel with a flaming sword to guard the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. In Genesis 19, two Angels rescue Lot from Sodom. In Numbers 22:22-33 an Angel of the Lord blocks Balaam’s way. In the book of Judges the Angel of the Lord shows up and talks to Gideon and inspires him to battle to free Israel. In Daniel 6:22, “My God sent his angel and shut the lions mouth.” We meet Raphael in the book of Tobit, he helps Tobit’s son Tobiah on his quest to help his father. (If you aren’t Catholic you might not have this book in your bible, it got taken out after the reformation, it’s a good book, if you get a chance, you should definitely read it.) We meet Michael in Daniel, Jude and Revelation. We pray the St. Michaels prayer every Sunday before Mass.
“St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast out Satan and all evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.”
We meet Gabriel in Daniel and later in Luke, he speaks to Mary and Zechariah. An angel rolls back the stone at the resurrection. There were angels in the tomb who told Mary Magdalene that Jesus was gone. (John 20:12) When Jesus ascends into heaven two angels ask the apostles what they are looking at in the sky. Acts1:11. There are many more examples but I think you get the idea. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church sections 325-349 cover angels. This is from section 336 “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life. Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.” But don’t take my word or the word of the Catholic church, Jesus himself says there are angels and that he can summon them if he wants to, in Mathew 26:53. In Mathew 18:10 he says “see that you do not despise one of these little ones for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
When I was 18 I was in a really bad roll over accident on the freeway. I hit a concrete barrier and flipped my car three times and it landed on its side. A truck driver from the opposite side of the freeway ran over and pulled me out of my wrecked car. I had one scratch. I should have died. Let me explain. Back in the 80’s there was no seat belt law and so when I learned to drive when I was 16, sometimes I wore my seatbelt and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes to help my parents out I would take one of my siblings to school. The morning of the accident I took my little brother to school. We got in the car, a little Dodge Omni and I got ready to take off but before I put the car into gear I heard, “Debbie, put on your seatbelt.” It was odd but I listened and I put on my seatbelt. Twenty minutes later I was hanging by it on the side of the freeway. When the car first hit the barrier I thought a few things, first I thought, “Wow, so this is how it ends, so fast”, then I thought, “My Mom will be so sad,”, then I thought, ” I need to say the Our Father, if I make it to the part about forgiveness I’ll get to heaven,” then everything was black. I could feel glass and dirt hitting my face as I prayed and rolled. A lady pulled over and she was from my church and she hugged me and stayed with me and a man, I think a policemen, called my Mom at work and she came. If I didn’t put my seatbelt on I would have flown through the window of my car and I would have died or at least been severely injured. I was traveling at 65 miles an hour, just over the speed limit when it all happened. I went to work the next day and my co-worker found out that I was the one in the car she saw flipped over in the center divide of the freeway and she said, “I thought for sure whoever was in that car was dead.” I know God was with me for sure. I know the Holy Spirit told me to put on my seatbelt. I think my guardian angel covered me and held me in that car when I hit a cement barrier at 65 miles a hour, flipped three times and landed on the side, hanging from my seat belt. God sends his angels to guide and guard us. I was taught this from the time I was a little girl. I remember being afraid actually of sitting on mine somehow. Makes me laugh to think of that.
I’m sure many people have stories of angels. When my Dad died I could feel someone holding my hand during the Our Father and I thought it was my Dad, then I thought it was my Guardian Angel, later I decided it was Jesus, because he promised he was close to the broken-hearted. In the end, I don’t spend too much time wondering any more because whoever it is that holds my hand is either God or from God and I’m ok with that.
The beginning of our Creed goes like this, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible…” it continues on from there, the point being there’s a whole invisible world we can’t see and that world includes angels and my Dad. When Father John came out from the hospital after giving my Dad his last rites, he told me that my Dad was part of the invisible not the absent. When Jason’s Dad died, Jason told me it gave him comfort to repeat the end of our Creed, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” I wonder at the things we can’t see and I’m glad God has sent each one of us our own angel to watch over us.
Another great thing that happened today is that one of my students got baptized yesterday! He attends a church called Foundation 365 and I wanted to go support him, but it didn’t work out. This morning, however, he was so excited and he gave me a hug because he knows I’m a Christian and I got to congratulate him and give him a card I had written for him. I got to see pictures of his baptism and was just so excited for him. I promised to pray for him so if you are reading this please pray for him too! Our youth have so much against them. I watch my own beautiful daughter struggle with thoughts that are not from God. Thoughts that tell her she is unworthy, un-liked, unloved, even though there is ample evidence that this is not true. I tell her we have to train our minds to trust in and hope in God’s words and its not easy so I’m glad my student will be able to recall his baptism when life gets difficult and remember whose he is. I hope he will continue to learn about all the love God has for him. I can only answer questions about God when the kids ask me directly. I’m glad he asked if I was a Christian and I’m happy he shared his baptism with me.
For today for Guardian Angels and Baptisms…I Give Thanks!
We ran only 2miles today but we managed to keep with our 30/30 and 1/30 run/walk intervals so that was good…doing better everyday!
KOR
This is the neighbors cat…he likes to join us on our runs…he’s really a tripping hazard but so cute!
I was watching this movie called Free Solo about this guy named Alex Honnold. He is the first and only person to Free Solo El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. It was a really good movie. I always find stories about overcoming the odds inspiring, even if they are slightly crazy things like climbing El Capitan without any safety ropes or protection of any kind. Crazy. Cool. Crazy. Amazing.
We were just there yesterday, Yosemite. It is one of my favorite places in the world. Alex called El Capitan the greatest piece of granite in the world. That’s saying a lot coming from a man who has literally climbed massive granite cliffs all over the world. Even cooler that it is only about 2 and a half hours from us!
We love to go to Yosemite every year about this time. We enjoy the waterfalls and the beautiful views. It can be crowded in summer but the key is getting there before 8:00AM, parking the car and then hiking everywhere you want to go or taking the shuttle around the valley. Do not attempt to re-park, once parked and take food with you!
So back to this Alex guy. I was thinking how we are all Free Solo-ing every day in this thing we call life. In many ways its more scary than climbing El Cap. Alex prepared. He practiced every pitch on his chosen route over and over until he had every move memorized and it was just automatic. He had specific notes about when to do what move, how to move his body, his hands, his feet, where to put them. The consequence of making a wrong move was death.
We don’t really have that luxury. We can’t practice for what’s to come because we don’t what is coming, in most cases. We have to just go out there everyday and Free Solo our way around whatever the mountain throws at us. There are sections of granite in Yosemite on big slabs like El Cap called flake. Granite can flake unexpectedly and break away, leading a climber to an early death or injury. The same thing often happens in life. Something we thought was steady and true and never changing all of a sudden changes without warning and we have two choices, let it kill us or adjust, grab our rope and find another way up.
Today is Pentecost. Today we celebrate the rope that God sent us, the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I forget that rope is there. Sometimes I want to do it all by myself and I forget to reach out for the rope and then smack, down I go.
It’s pretty cool that Alex climbed this massive piece of granite without a rope. He considers himself a militant atheist. I’m not sure what that means actually, to be honest. I read it here...
I’m just glad that as I do my own Free Solo in life I have a rope ready and waiting for me any time I want it. I notice, for me, its when I forget about my rope, that I get the most worried and anxious. When I start to think I need to do it all by myself that I get the most frustrated and tired.
In reality, Alex didn’t climb El Cap with a rope but he had one. He had his friends who worked with him daily during the climbing season to help him train. He had an awesome crew of camera men and fellow climbers cheering him on. He had his girlfriend supporting him in his dream. He had many ropes. He just didn’t see them or at least in the movie acknowledge them.
If you watch the movie you’ll see he’s a rather self-centered man. I guess in some ways you need to be to accomplish amazing things. Maybe he’s changed by now. I hope one day he will also find the only rope that really matters.
For Today…For Yosemite, God’s beautiful creation, and ropes! I Give Thanks!
Today at mass our pastor Father John gave his homily, if I’m honest I don’t really remember most of the homily, probably because I thought it would be about the transfiguration, which was the Gospel today, but that wasn’t his focus. I thought we’d get a homily about how we can all change. Instead, as part of his homily, I heard, “Everything is a Gift from God. Everything.” That phrase caught my attention because just the other day I was listening to Alistar Begg, he’s a pastor whose sermons we listen to, almost daily. He’s not Catholic, in fact, I’m pretty sure he thinks Catholicism is bunk but you know it’s fine by me, we all have our flaws, Ha!
Seriously, Alistar was giving a sermon this week where he was talking about just being grateful for waking up in the morning and looking out the window and seeing a blue sky. It was the same message I heard today from Father John.
When bad things happen its hard to see things as gifts. We had a sad accident happen this weekend. As we were returning home from work Friday we drove into our garage like we always do but we didn’t see our neighbors cat. Sadly, after all was said and done, it didn’t turn out well. Laina and I cried ourselves to sleep. I encouraged her to paint a picture of him the next day so she could have a memory and we printed out a nice picture we had taken of him a few months earlier. We wrote a card asking for forgiveness from our neighbor and took it over the next day. The wife is very sweet and very forgiving. I don’t know that I would be that forgiving but it wasn’t her cat. It was the childhood cat of her husband, who we actually haven’t seen since Friday night so I’m not real sure he’s quite ready to forgive us and I can’t say I blame him.
I was so upset at one point I told my husband he had ruined our entire weekend. Totally unfair and untrue. I prayed that morning that our neighbors would forgive us and then I called my mom, who else would I call? I cried and told her what happened and as moms often do she helped put it all in perspective for me and I felt better after I talked to her. Funny how at 47 years old I still want to have my mom make it all ok.
Anyway, such a sad start to our weekend but when I heard Father John this morning it forced me to look at the weekend as a whole and realize that lots of good things happened too. The weather was amazing, beautiful blue sky for miles, warm, not too hot. I went to a bridal shower for my cousin. Very happy for him. I guess I went to the bridal shower of his fiance but I’ve considered her my cousin for a long time already, such as it is. We had a fun St. Patrick’s Day breakfast with our family and friends. We ate corned beef and cabbage or tri-tip and potatoes, if you preferred, with Irish Soda Bread and other yummy side dishes here and there. We ended our weekend by taking a drive down Sky Harbor Road. If you live in our valley then you know that one of the very best things is our foothills in the spring. Absolutely incredible any spring but with so much rain this year it is a total feast for the eyes! Sky Harbor Road winds around one of our local lakes and leads up to a hiking trail. It was just spectacular, so beautiful, I didn’t want to leave. The amazing thing is it is only like 25 minutes from our house, if that, I love where we live in CA. We can be at any of a number of amazing places in less than an hour and if we want to see the ocean, its’ just a little over a two hour drive. If we want to be in a big city we are less than 3 or 4 hours away, depending on if we go south or north. We almost never want to be in a big city. I don’t think I will ever get my daughter to go back to San Francisco, she was not impressed when we went in January.
I’m off track. My point was behind all these wonderful things was an ache in my heart for the pain we caused our neighbor and it hasn’t gone away. I’m old enough to know it will lessen over time but I’m also old enough to know it will never go away. I hope they forgive us. They are nice people and it would be nice to get to know them better. It was a reminder that we should know them better, that whole Love Your Neighbors thing. It was a reminder that things aren’t permanent and in the matter of less than a second, everything can be changed.
Everything is a gift from God. Beautiful things are gifts from God and sad and painful things are gifts from God too. They both are designed to remind us that we are His. Forgiveness is His greatest gift. We can’t earn that, we can only accept that we have it. It’s called Grace. We can’t force others to forgive us when we’ve wronged them. We can only ask for it, the important part there is we need to ask. The second most important part is to forgive ourselves. We are useless when we wallow in self-pity. We can not “Glorify God by Our Life” when we wallow in self.
We are His creation and He calls out to us, sometimes the call is painful and heart crushing but sometimes, like this afternoon the call is beautiful and heart filling.
I’ve seen deep sadness and brokenness in my own life turned to joy immeasurable, you’d think I’d learned this lesson by now. Obviously not. God’s mercies are never ending and His faithfulness is always true. Our names are carved into the palm of His hands, carved. I am overwhelmed by this truth.
What a crazy weekend. Lows and highs.
For everything God sends to me good and bad…I Give Thanks!
KOR
Here’s a picture of our foothills. They are amazing.
Well, this one was easy as I almost always hold the door open for students when they come into class, so task accomplished. My poor husband though, who I met for lunch, couldn’t seem to get anyone to walk through any door he tried to hold open! Poor guy.
This topic got me thinking actually about how holding the door open for people is more than just the literal act of holding open a door. We can all “hold the door open” for people in lots of different ways. We can take a meal to someone. We can spend time visiting someone who might be lonely. We can give a young person some much needed encouragement or sound advice that they might not be able to get at home due to circumstances quite often out of their control. We can do so many things to “hold the door open.”
Today’s reading was about Isaiah and his prophecy of Jesus. The gospel was about Jesus telling the disciples basically, hey, I’m THE GUY, THE ONE, remember yesterday when I was wondering what exactly Andrew and Simon saw that made them leave immediately? Today Jesus said this:
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
I believe the bible is a living book. It speaks to us wherever we are. It’s God’s way of communicating with us, among others, every time I open it I learn something or hear something I never quite heard before. God meets us in His word where we are. Today Jesus told me, it’s ME, I AM the one you are looking for, don’t be like the people who refuse to hear the good news, be like a little child. To do that, Father says you have to be open minded, open to all the possibilities a relationship with Jesus brings.
The Advent reflection today introduced me to a cool website called, wearesaltandlight.org. My husband and I met with a friend over the summer about trying to do something for the youth at our church to give them the opportunity to go out and practice their faith in a concrete way. I am of the mind though that kids need models and so if they see their parents and other church members practicing their faith in concrete ways they will follow suit. We talked about creating a database that contained the different gifts of parishioners so that we could match them up with people in our parish who are in need of concrete help in addition to prayer. Nick Vujicic from Life Without Limbs, says we are God’s hands and feet. If you don’t know who he is, google him, and then you will know why this is amazing. We want our daughter to live her life with intention. To have a purpose and a goal and so I think we need to model that for her so she knows what that looks like and how it is to live with intention under God’s direction. Sometimes she’ll ask me what I think she should do when she grows up and I always ask her what she thinks God is asking her to be. She thinks so far maybe a vet or a nun. I want grandchildren so I’m hoping for vet, ha ha. She has a love for animals and she has a love for people. She has a very sweet heart. I like that about her. She is a good example for me. It was good to come across this website because now it has made me want to spend some time over the break looking through it and really making a plan for this next year and living that plan intentionally.
I feel happiest when I am helping others. I think most people do in general but I know for some people it feels more like a chore. I just know that I really have enjoyed having our little troop work on service projects this year instead of some of the other “lessons” we are supposed to be doing.
The other cool reminder I got today, going back to something I mentioned yesterday about migrants and refugees, was that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were refugees. They had to flee to Egypt to escape Herod. I never thought of that before. The challenge question today was to think about Mary and Joseph, particularly Joseph and how he must have felt at having to leave his home, frankly for political reasons. We see that with many many migrants and refugees. I imagine Jesus is very close to them as He understands what it is to be a refugee.
I am constantly amazed at how God made one person who could understand so many many many different facets of human life. Jesus was born but also adopted. He was a refugee. He was poor. He worked. He had friends. He was persecuted and mocked. He was constantly questioned by the Pharisee, a way to check his intelligence, I suppose. He suffered the loss of a good friend. He despaired. I think we’d be hard pressed to find any situation that we find ourselves in that Jesus didn’t also live through. Amazing. Our pastor says that the number one most important thing in our lives is to get to know Jesus, to call him friend. Today I was listening to a podcast and the woman preacher asked if we were dating Jesus or married to Jesus, because you treat those two situations differently, one is total commitment, the other lukewarm.
Well, lots to think about today. I didn’t even write about St. John Damascene, who had to flee his country because of religious persecution. I’m really glad a friend suggested I try out the holidailies because its given me a goal to be intentional about. Thank you friend!
Today for finding out about wearesaltandlight.org, for being reminded about all the ways Jesus knows me, for my husband holding my door open, for Advent, for good strong run this morning, for the roasted chicken I am making for dinner, and for the beautiful view of the snow on the mountains…I Give Thanks!
KOR
It’s hard to see kind of but here’s a picture of our snow capped mountains. A great sight here in my Ca Valley…
Well, I kinda cheated on this one. I let my husband go before me when we were in line for communion but because of the way we enter and leave the pews, you kind of have to let the people to the right of you in front of you. So, as we were leaving church, I made sure to let an older man out of the church door before me. I wasn’t sure I was going to have another opportunity to let anyone else in front of me in a line as I wasn’t sure we were shopping today. We did go shopping today after all but wouldn’t you know it? There was NO line!
After church on Sunday my family comes to our house for brunch. Sometimes we have breakfast stuff, sometimes lunch stuff. Today we had Chili Verde, which wasn’t actually very Verde-ish but still good, eggs, fried potatoes, oh and my mom’s homemade pinto beans, yum! Toast! There was also toast! Sometimes it’s just my parents and my brother or sister but today everyone was here. I really enjoy seeing my family. All of their children are our God-Children, we are lucky that way:-)
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The homily at church was about being watchful. The homily on-line, that I like to listen to was about asking the question, How do we want to be remembered? The gist of the idea being if you know where you want to end up you can develop a plan to get there.
We will light our Advent candle in just a bit and we got our Christmas tree today. I also enjoy both of those traditions this time of year. We bless our wreath with the following prayer and every night we light the candle for that week.
The usual song is O Come Emmanuel…we are waiting. Strangely, we are waiting for both the end and the beginning. Kinda weird I guess.
Lord our God, we praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ: he is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples, he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us, he is the Savior of every nation. Lord God, let your blessing come upon us as we light the candles of this wreath. May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation. May he come quickly and not delay. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/.Amen.
I liked the verse from O Come Emmanuel we sang tonight. It would definitely be good if division could cease.
Come, O Come, Emmanuel”:
O come, desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of humankind;
bid ev’ry sad division cease
and be thyself our Prince of peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.
Looking forward to decorating our tree and trying to enjoy the moments I find myself in, though truth be told I’ve been on the Grinchie side the last few hours. It always seems Sunday nights find me with more to do than I would actually care to do, add holiday stuff on top of that and, well…deep breath and try to come back to the moment instead of worrying about tomorrow. It will get here soon enough, with God’s blessing.
So today, for the First Sunday of Advent, Family breakfast, Christmas trees, light and waiting…I Give Thanks!
KOR
Here’s a before shot of our Christmas Tree and our Advent Wreath…
Today December 1st was the first day of an Advent challenge I convinced my husband, Jason, to do with me. The challenge was to give a hug or a compliment to someone. I’m a hug type person so this was actually pretty easy for me but for Jason not intuitive. So it was surprising, that when leaving my moms after picking up our daughter that he said to her, “Let me give you a hug and say Thank You for always helping with Laina. I really appreciate it.” My mom was surprised as well, her eyes got happy and she said, “Thank You.”
This reminded me that it really doesn’t take a whole lot to make most people happy. A little acknowledgement for a job well done or a kind word to encourage or support someone doesn’t cost any money but how many of us do it as much as we should? From the daily headlines I would venture to say it doesn’t happen often. The news is so negative, always looking for someone to make fun of or someone to denigrate or looking for things that are wrong in general. I’m not sure why I even bother to read it, except sometimes there is something cool like the latest Mars probe landing or something informative, like George H.W.’s passing.
Jesus was always encouraging. He told the truth, which was hard to hear at times but His words always ended with encouragement and hope. That’s all most people want.
We had a great run this morning. Saw some beautiful morning light and my run felt good. I felt and feel stronger than I have in a long time. Still eating healthy and focusing on the positive changes that brings me, instead of the chocolate chip cookie I know will make me feel tired later.
Deena Kastor says changing your mindset is key to making improvements, a lot of other people say the same thing too, Saint Paul said we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It all starts with kind, good and holy words to ourselves and others.
So today, on the first Day of December, for Advent Challenges, Morning Light and every day a new chance to do better and be better…I Give Thanks!
KOR
Here’s some pictures from our run this AM:
The first is my favorite morning light picture that I took just as the sun rose. The second is an orchard we can’t usually see during summer because the trees are too thick. The leaves had almost all fallen and it was like peeking into a different place as we ran by..
Last Friday my daughter had a half day at school. Her God-Father was chosen as the Grand Marshall of our local high school Homecoming Parade and invited her to ride in the Grand Marshall car with him. She excitedly accepted. After the parade I took her to her usual swim lesson and after the swim lesson we went to the Homecoming game to watch her God-Father get his plaque and do the coin toss. Her God-Parents called her down to the field to be with them. We got to sit in the special Grand Marshall seating and her God-Parents let her have her little friend sit with her in this section. Her dad took her to the snack bar where she got a polish dog and a bag of Hot Cheetos.
At some point during the game I went to pick up the stuffed bear she brought with her and the Hot Cheetos slipped down behind the bleachers which are on a cement slant, alas the Hot Cheetos were gone. My daughter was NOT happy. The loss of the Hot Cheetos took over and that’s all she talked about until it was time to leave the game. We attempted to replace the Hot Cheetos but the snack bar had run out. This made her even more upset. So from the time we left the stadium to the time we got home all I heard about were the lost Hot Cheetos.
You can imagine I was irritated because she had had a wonderful day, a parade, swimming, homecoming game with special seats, and still it wasn’t enough. She still wanted the Hot Cheetos. I had a chat with her and reminded her about all the fun she had that day and I told her, “You get enough. Go to bed.” She was still lamenting the Hot Cheetos.
Later on during our long run the next day, my husband and I were discussing what we should do about the apparent lack of appreciation our daughter was showing. As we talked different topics came up. Our conversations while running often ramble and range from when is the next fuel break to what is coming up in the following week, this one rambled along to talking about how we were led to our daughter through the gift of adoption. The blessings we have in our lives. All the gifts we have been given. Our poor stewardship of those gifts. At one point we were talking about something we wanted, I can’t remember what it was, a trip we wanted to take or some item maybe and all of a sudden my husband yelled, “Hot Cheetos!”
Holy Moly! Hot Cheetos! I looked at him and I thought…we get enough but we still want more. Hot Cheetos! I began to wonder if we were modeling that behavior to our daughter. I haven’t decided. I don’t think so but I do know we could definitely be better stewards with the gifts God has given us. Dave Ramsey says being content is necessary to being good stewards of our material gifts. Deena Kastor in her book, Let Your Mind Run, talks about how she shaped her training and her life around thankfulness. Our pastor says we should practice being thankful to God for his gifts of creation, family and friends everyday.
So every time I catch myself being greedy and wanting more I have a phrase that pops in my head now. Hot Cheetos! I immediately try to return to a place of gratitude and contentment with what my present situation is. It doesn’t always work but its a start. You’d think someone who has a blog about being thankful would actually be thankful. Right?
For Hot Cheetos, Gods Gifts of Creation, talks during long runs with my husband that lead to realizations that I’m not really as grateful as I should be…I Give Thanks!
Yesterday was the Feast of the Guardian Angels. If you grew up Catholic, you likely know the Guardian Angel Prayer…
“Angel of God, My Guardian Dear to Whom God’s Love entrust me here, Ever this day be at my side to light, and guard to rule and guide.”
We were reading about Angels last night and we found this interesting reference in Tobit. If you aren’t Catholic you don’t have the book of Tobit in your bible. I believe it is the only place in the bible that the Arch Angel Raphael is referenced.
“Raphael called the two of them aside privately and said to them: “Bless God and give him thanks before all the living for the good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Proclaim before all with due honor the deeds of God, and do not be slack in thanking him.*“Since my blog is supposed to be about giving thanks I really liked what Raphael was telling Tobit and Tobiah.
Our pastor has a Pastor’s Corner that is published every Sunday in our church bulletin. He’s on Part 7 of a series on Holiness. *This week he talked about Prayer of the Heart. He said that he likes to start his day focusing on blessings in four categories:
*1)the glories of creation 2)my life, family and friends 3)redemption through the sacrificial love of Jesus 4)the last 24 hours.
The idea is to spend a few minutes in each of these areas thinking about and giving thanks for the blessings we have in each category. I tried it today by focusing on just the first one. Running and Hiking have taken us to many beautiful places. I love being outside, spending time in God’s creation, so this was an easy place for me to start.
I can report that Father John was right. It is a nice way to start my day. I have to admit I didn’t spend a lot of time on 2-4, guess my road to Holiness will take a bit longer. It was hard to be in a sour mood after contemplating all the amazing things God has created for us and how ALL of creation bends to His will. I had help with a song by Hillsong United called, So Will I…if you are looking for a good way to start your day, you can’t go wrong with this song and time with Jesus.
I definitely feel that I’m getting a clear message from Jesus about Thankfulness and its importance in my life…
So for today, God’s Creation, Guardian Angels, and a call to Holiness…I Give Thanks!
KOR
*Father John Warburton, O.S.J., Pastor, Pastors Corner, September 30th Bulletin, St. Joachim Catholic Church
I’m injured and I’m bummed. I’ve been training for the Monterey Bay Half Marathon, used to be the Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay. My husband and I have run every single one since the very first one. My knee is bugging! It is interfering with my training. It aches. The PT guy doesn’t think it’s an injury that needs surgery etc..He thinks the muscles around my knee are aggravated. They aren’t the only thing that’s aggravated. Sigh. I HATE being injured. I don’t like not being able to do what I love doing. Is that a double negative?
I love how I feel when I run. I love feeling out of breath and feeling like I’ve given my all at something. I can’t run like that when I’m injured. I’m running more like a Heffalump these days. I know I should be grateful that it’s not worse. I know I’m just being whiny.
Let’s see I am thankful for a few things today:
1)Dinner was really yummy. I’m still doing Whole 30. Tonight I made Walnut Crusted Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Noodles and Zucchini for dinner. It was tasty and there is some left over for breakfast tomorrow.
2)My knee isn’t constantly aching. I’m able to get around without constant pain. It’s mostly just when I run.
3)My foot with the Plantar Fasciitis isn’t acting up and feels good. That’s the foot on the opposite leg. It hurt for like two years so that’s a positive.
4)I got to spend the afternoon listening to nice uplifting music while my daughter did her Math homework and found a couple of new songs I’ve never heard.
5)Ice Packs. I’m really thankful for Ice Packs today and ice in general. I suppose it wasn’t always so easy to get ice.
Hope you’ve had a good day. Pray for my knee!
For all these things…I Give Thanks!
KOR
Here’s one of the new songs I bought today 🙂 I’m just going to have to trust God will be Right on Time with my recovery from this injury!
Thankful Runner Girl 