Well I’m kind of sad today so I thought I’d take a few minutes to be thankful for some things.
I was able to stop by my nephew’s football game after school today. I enjoy watching him and his friends play. It reminds me of when I would go see his Dad at his little league games and later high school basketball games. It was always fun to cheer for my brother and now I get to cheer for his son!
I was able to go to Adoration twice this week. I’ve been going since my friend Becky passed away. The day I found out she passed I was so sad, so I looked for a church that was having adoration and I found OLPH had adoration in their chapel that day. I went and prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet for her. My Dad used to say it at night with my Mom. They would sing it actually on the Catholic channel and my Mom liked listening to my Dad sing, that’s how I learned about it. It’s comforting to me. I find that sitting in the presence of Jesus is comforting to me. Sometimes, you need a real tangible something to remember Jesus is real, especially when things aren’t going how you would like them to go and I think that’s at least part of the reason Jesus gave us the gift of the Eucharist.
Oh Penelope the Pumpkin was harvested last week! So, this tiny little plant shows up in our garden/flower bed area one day and I figured I’d let it grow. It grew and grew and grew, so big but no fruit, then one day my daughter sent me a photo of a tiny little green thing. Well, that tiny little green thing turned into a giant orange pumpkin. It was fun to watch her grow and turn orange. All the things that had to happen for this pumpkin to grow and turn orange and get so big, amazing to me.
Our daughter has been doing great in what she is saying is her last season of Cross Country. We enjoy going to her meets and watching her and her teammates run. Running challenges you to be your best self. I think it’s a great sport. I’ll probably be sad next fall, well actually this summer. I’m so used to summertime cross country practice and fall cross country races. I hope our daughter will look back on her experiences starting with Coach Tom all those years ago with happiness and gratitude. Father John would say, “It’s all gift.” So I’ll try to remember to focus on the happy memories. Who knows, she might be wrong, we may yet have Cross Country in our life for a little while.
Oh and our friend and piano teacher Miss Sandy is recovering from her surgery. She is doing well, so that was good news today!
Big trees! Kings Canyon National Park is where you will find the giant sequoias so amazing and beautiful. We are surrounded by so much beauty. I thank God for it all.
I’ve seen some beautiful sunsets. We’re getting up too early to see sunrises on our runs but the sunsets complete with Cotton Candy skies…what a treat!
I feel a little better so I’ll stop there for today. Looking forward to watching our daughter run fast tomorrow at her meet. “Forward, Always Forward, God will provide.”
So for today…for big pumpkins, big trees, big sunsets, games, adoration, friends and running…I Give thanks!
We were able to finally do a 5 mile long run on the last Saturday of summer after trying to get there all summer long, so that was good…on to 6;-) KOR!
Football Fun! Penelope the Pumpkin Sunset on our walk…Some big trees…
I went to see my friend Becky yesterday. She has Alzheimer’s and isn’t really eating that much anymore. She is still up and walking around though. She’s in home hospice care now.
One of the best things about Becky was how she was always there to give me a comforting word or piece of advice that was actually useful. Lots of people try to give advice, few people know how to give useful advice, Becky’s advice was always useful.
This was another bad week for my family for reasons I don’t want to share right now. I looked to my mom for comfort but that’s not her gift when she’s worried. I tried another older friend but her idea of comfort is advice, not the good kind. I was thinking Becky would know what to say and do but I was sad because she hasn’t remembered me all year.
Yesterday when we went to see her, her husband told me to share something from school, so I said, “Becky, we made your ice cream this week at school.” She looked up at me mumbled something that I didn’t understand but then she reached out her arms to me and grabbed me to hug me and we just stood there giving each other the longest hug ever. I was so grateful.
Then she walked me over to her couch and we sat down next to each other and she patted my hand and I hers. I talked mostly about school, names of other teachers she might recognize, labs we had been working on in class. We sat next to each other quietly while I patted her back. She talked to me about things in her usual Becky way, I could still see and hear in her voice my friend. After awhile she looked at me and clearly asked for the time. I told her, “5 PM” and just like that she got up and said she had to go….and she started walking around her home again…
Her husband Jaxson moved over to the couch where we were and eventually Becky wandered back over and sat next to him. She kissed his leg and snuggled close while he held her. I watched and realized God was giving me a glimpse of heavenly love in my friends. She fell asleep in his arms and our visit ended so she could get some rest and her husband could hold his wife. We let ourselves out and I could only be grateful for the continued gift that is my friend, Becky.
So today I’m thankful that on a day I needed love and support, my friend was there for me, even without words and even in her illness and even when she has no idea what’s been going on in my life. She still showed her love for me in a way we both understood. Her life continues to have purpose and meaning and she continues to bless others even in this illness. I will remember her hug always and I hope it’s not our last.
For my friend Becky…I Give thanks!
We ran a 2 mile race yesterday, Dala Horse Trot, it was fun and the pancakes were great as usual…
Our daughter had a track meet this Saturday at San Francisco State.
We could have driven up this morning and then back after her race but we decided to drive up after dropping her off with her team.
We were trying to get to the Stations of the Cross at a church on Half Moon Bay called Our Lady of Pillar. We made it but there must have been some confusion with their bulletins because they were still in the middle of the Good Friday liturgy services when we got there. I hate walking into church late so instead we walked around the little church and looked at their Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, really pretty. We did join in on the tail end of the solemn prayers and then we continued our drive to see if we could find the beach.
We found a lot of trails but a trail to the beach that didn’t require scrambling down an embankment wasn’t one of the things we found. We tried but there was no obvious way down to the beautiful sandy beach that I could realistically climb so we enjoyed the views from the bluff. There’s a little town we drove through that we’ll have to come back and walk around there later on the year. Then it was off to Devils Slide…
Devils Slide it turns out is a 1.3 mile trail on the old Highway 1. There are a lot of signs warning about falling rock from the cliffs above and to stay away from the edge. There’s actually a fence to keep people away but you know there’s always that one person who thinks they are immune to death. The walk was nice, the views were worth it and the highlight was getting to see some peregrine falcons in flight. They swooped and soared and swooped again. Amazing to watch.
Then it was off to Pacifica. We didn’t do much walking here. We stopped for dinner at Nicks. It’s a casual place right on the water and we saw a beautiful sunset and had a wonderful meal.
Headed to our hotel after dinner and this morning we drove out to Fort Funston. We did a two mile walk here and in addition to beautiful ocean views we got to see a little history. Fort Funston is where they had battle guns and artillery placed to help protect the coast in the event of an attack. We walked through Battery Davis and saw some other old concrete remnants, some of them toppled onto the beach.
Then is was off to the meet to watch our girl run her way to a PR.
So today for amazing ocean views, a wonderful dinner with my husband and the opportunity to cheer our girl onto another PR…I give thanks!
Our Lady of Guadalupe at the churchOne of the beaches around Half Moon BayOne of the views at Devils Slide…Sunset view from Nicks in Pacifica View of the beach from Fort Funston…Battery Davis where they kept the gun…Our Lady of Pillar in Half Moon Bay..Cox Stadium…
Today is a Friday during Lent, so we don’t eat meat.
I was thinking on dinner and decided to order a veggie pizza from our favorite Italian restaurant in our town. It was so good.
We got home early enough for me to get my weight workout done that I didn’t do earlier today. I didn’t do it because I was up all night crying about my friend. I decided my friend wouldn’t want me to use her as an excuse not to do something that is good for me so I got it done.
Water. I forget sometimes how good an ice cold water tastes, seriously, it’s so good. It’s been hot this week so I am thankful for ice cold water.
So today for veggie pizza, workouts, and ice cold water…I give thanks!
Seems I always end up back at this beach. On cloudy days when the sea reflects back the gray of the sky. On bright beautiful sunny days, where the sea is a stunningly gorgeous shade of all the blues. On happy days and sad days…this beach has been a part of my life for over 30 years…
When we were dating we came to Monterey on a date and I loved it and never wanted to leave. We have probably spent more time in this place than any other place we’ve ever been. We’ve run miles and miles here getting ready for a marathon or running the local half. We’ve read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at least twice through, not to mention the Harry Potter series, while hanging out on this beach. We’ve chased sunsets and sunrises, tossed our frisbee back and forth, flown our kite, been attacked by hungry seagulls…
We grieved the loss of our first baby, Lauren Rose, here at this beach. We sat on “our” bench, on her birthday, and we read letters to each other we each had written, as the sea did its thing.
We’ve stood at the edge of this beach looking out across the sea wondering when we would meet our new baby girl, who we had been praying for, for years. We would meet her almost four years after our Lauren Rose went to heaven.
We drove here the day my Dad died and I stared out at the sunset, begging God to reveal himself to me. My Dad died alone during Covid, my mom and brother only allowed to be with him in his last final breaths. My heart was broken. I loved my Dad. The thought of him alone without his family for nearly seven days still haunts me. We came back often to watch the sunset after he died. Something about that beach has always brought me comfort.
A few years after my Dad passed away someone shot our sweet dog, Obi. We came back to this beach where I would gather the driftwood he loved to chew on. I was so sad not to be able to take home a stick for him. He wasn’t home anymore.
We found ourselves back here after our sweet Emily passed, and my Uncle and my Aunt Alice, Great-Gramdma, our friend Hector too many losses lately…
They buried my friend Anne this past Tuesday and today I found myself back at this beach. I told my husband, “this place holds a lot of my tears, an ocean of tears” as we walked along it hand in hand.
I watched the light reflect off the water in a way only God can make happen and was reminded, He is still with me, even in the sadness of another loss, even while thinking about losses to come, including the day I will no longer be able to come to “our” beach. There’s always a last time for everything, right?
My heart is heavy right now, even as life continues on with school and college track meets for our daughter, who I love to watch do her thing.
Funny how we carry joy and grief side by side at times. While I rejoice in my daughter and her achievements on and off the track I grieve for my lost friends. I’m concerned for my sister’s continued poor health. I worry about my Mom. My husband’s Mom is having some serious health issues right now also. I wonder what will come and if I’ll be able to weather the storms.
The drive to “our” beach was breathtaking today. Multiple shades of greens in the hills. As we drive home tonight the sunset has colored the water in the reservoir a shade of pink I’ve never seen before, it’s amazing. God is amazing.
We’ve got some things going on right now that are uncertain and I don’t much like it, but I’m thankful for days like today, where we can escape even if it’s just for a few hours, into God’s creation before we go back to the business of living the life we were gifted.
So today for Asilomar, the Bobcat Trail in Andrew Molera State Park that we ended up on, almost by accident, and heavenly sunsets…I give thanks!
Nothing to report on the running front, still running, not a lot of miles but we are lifting a lot of weights, which will hopefully help with our running…KOR…
“Our” beach View from the Bobcat Trail, that’s the Big Sur River…Heavenly Sunsets…Light bouncing off the water at Asilomar …
It’s raining today…quite steady right now actually. I’m waiting for my husband to get off work and our daughter to finish up with her lab so we can all head home. The 99 can be a wicked drive in the rain and I want our daughter to have a little more practice driving around just in town before she tackles that drive. I’m at my favorite little cafe staring out the window watching the rain fall in sheets from a broken gutter onto the outside patio furniture. There’s a little older couple who is looking over at me now and again, can’t tell if they think I’m transcribing their conversation or just looking out the window behind me. It doesn’t really matter.
We were back to school today after a long three day weekend. We have two three day weekends in February back to back, Lincoln’s birthday and Presidents Day. Our daughter’s old elementary school only got one of the two Mondays off so my husband and I used to use whichever Monday she didn’t get off as a fun date day, usually a hike up at the lake where I spent a lot of time as a kid. She gets both Mondays off these days, mostly because she’s in college now and doesn’t have class on Mondays. It didn’t matter this year though because, it’s raining, so we couldn’t go on our hike yesterday, which was a bummer. The Monday before we also had off and the weather was also not great but we were able to go for a run and see a sweet movie called Solo Mio.
It’s been a strange year so far. Many people to pray for who are having health struggles. My sister and other family and friends. I try to be grateful to wake up every morning able to move and take care of myself. I’m still trying to lose some weight to help my A1C and overall health. It would be nice to spend my 50’s active and healthy as I head into the second half of them in about half a year. I’m thankful to be able to pray for my friends and family to a God who is always listening, even when I might not think He hears. Feelings aren’t always a great thing to go by, they have a tendency to ebb and flow, we must trust in God’s word always and Jesus promised us that we are never alone, even on days when that’s exactly how we feel. Alone, concerned about the future, the state of a world where old women are kidnapped from their homes, or teens looking for an easy way to steal someone else’s belongings all die in a horrific car wreck and then there’s wars and the general state of the world. My hope remains in Jesus even when the plan remains elusive.
In addition to a three day weekend, Valentine’s Day was Saturday. I am thankful we got to spend time with the kids so their parents could have a Valentine date. We watched K-Pop Demon Hunters! Lol, it was an interesting movie and we talked about things that were good messages and things that were just weird. In general, the idea of “the accuser” and having to guard your mind from negative thoughts was a good idea. We all seem to struggle with negative, self-defeating thoughts somedays and sometimes those thoughts win and people we love end up places we would never want them to be. Some days we are able to win, push the thoughts away and continue our day. Thank goodness for those days.
On Valentine’s Day we picked up my mom and after our daughter’s practice we headed over to a little beach town called Cayucos. The beach isn’t very big, and neither is the town but they have some cute antique shops and at least two places we like to eat, Duckies and now Schooners. I think my Mom had a nice time and so did my daughter and man it was a beautiful drive!
Sunday we finally had our own Valentine Date, but I picked a bad movie, Crime 101, the plot was crazy, didn’t really make any sense but we stayed through the whole movie. It was nice to have a Valentine Date and for the 32nd year in a row my See’s candy heart made a return. This year it had chocolates, some years it has other gifts but this year mostly chocolate and I also got some flowers and cards 🙂 I have the best Valentine. We went running in the morning and the sky was so pretty, a really nice pink, purple, orange color. I love a colored sky.
Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. Some years I look forward to Lent, other years, like this year, I wonder why it’s a thing. I’m probably not supposed to write that out loud. It’s not that I don’t think the purpose of Lent is a good one. I do. It’s just that our particular church changes things to Latin and reduces the amount of instruments that can be played and wants the Psalms sung a certain way and they just try to make Sunday’s a lot more somber than it should be. Jesus wasn’t even Roman and He didn’t teach in Latin! Jesus was Jewish and spoke and taught in Aramaic, so the argument that it’s the language of Jesus isn’t valid. Sundays, in my opinion, should always be a joyful day. We commemorate the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and hopefully we leave Mass with a renewed sense of gratefulness and thankfulness for the gift of Jesus. Jesus took on all sin on the cross, not some sin, not most sin, all sin. Jesus died so we could enter heaven, including the thief who was crucified with him. A time of contemplating to remember this gift, a time of sacrifice to acknowledge the suffering and our redemption is good and useful but Sundays are special so I don’t totally understand the reasoning behind it all, but maybe it’s one of those things that I don’t totally need to understand. Maybe I should just follow the shepherds God has given us. Our Oblates of St. Joseph are good and holy men who love God’s people, maybe there’s something there that I don’t see?
Well I guess that’s it for now. No running news, trying out some once a week intervals, which are actually kinda hard, not as many miles lately because the weather has not been cooperating. Doing more weightlifting, following a Bill Philips 5X5 plan. We have a treadmill and it’s a new one, but so far I don’t much care for it, might try walking on it tonight if this rain doesn’t calm down, after my weight workout.
So today for pink Valentine skies, time spent with people we love, the gifts of sacrifice, clergy who care enough to try to help us contemplate that sacrifice(even if I don’t like Latin), beautiful skies, days off, and a little time to sit and think in a favorite cafe…I give thanks!
KOR-not sure when we’ll be able to sign up for another race, lots of track meets coming up but hopefully we’ll be able to up our mileage as the weather improves and get a little faster. A plan is in the works!
The Pink Valentine SkyAmazing views…Green hills and beautiful sky on our drive to the coast…My 32 year old Valentine…
Not thankful for screaming kids…should I say that? Makes me sound like a curmudgeon….opinion, some people let their kids whine too long before they correct them…home, one thing, out and about in public is a totally different thing…sigh…ok, probably unpopular opinion over…
Haven’t written here in awhile but November seems an appropriate time to offer some thanks…
Yesterday was Veterans Day. We were able to take my Mom up to Casa De Fruta and have lunch at Casa De Restaurant. My Dad used to like going there to eat lunch or walk around. He’s not with us on Earth anymore but it was nice to take my mom and I think she enjoyed the drive.
Kids who aren’t whiny. I have a few sweet students at school who routinely ask how I am and inquire about my sister. I’m thankful for kind kids.
My run this morning. We are definitely so much slower but I’m thankful to be able to wake up and go outside and run in the cool crisp air, even if now or days it’s a run/walk and even if it’s 5AM, yes AM.
My sister has been back to hospital in the last couple of weeks. Not good news for her kidneys and while I remain concerned I’m also thankful for good doctors and health care people. I pray everyday my sister is surrounded by people who can help her make good decisions.
Not sleeping a lot the last few weeks. I fall asleep and then wake up, all the worst ideas of what happens if my sister loses all her kidney function. I’m thankful that my Mom taught me the Our Father when I was a little girl and the Hail Mary. I’m thankful for the sisters at St. Joachim who taught me the other prayers that make up our rosary. I’m thankful for Bishop Barron who’s recorded the rosary on You Tube. I can put it on when I wake up in the wee hours and pray myself back to sleep. The Luminous Mysteries are my favorite.
Lastly I’m thankful it’s almost time to head home. It’s been a long day.
For all these things…I Give Thanks!
Ran the Two Cities 5K, did better than we thought….KOR…next run our local Turkey Trot!
