Running Wild

I am a runner.  Time and again I am asked, "why do you torture yourself like that?".  I get it, I used to see it as torture too.  I suffered many mysterious stomach flus and sore legs just prior to the first call for the the 3200m run in high school track!  I joined track to hang out with my friends, what was all this running about anyway!  I wasn't fast, so by default I was labeled a "distance" runner. There was no fire in my belly then.  At 15 I ran because my friends were in track. Unfortunately they were fast...so I could never keep up with them long enough to chat...and if I did, I was too out of breathe!  I'm glad I ran, for whatever reason I had at the time, but today I can see an evolution in my theory.  Today I run with a purpose and a shear love of it. 

In July of 2011 my friend Cindy posted about this ap she was using on her iPhone called Couch to 5K (c25k). She talked about how great she felt, and what a sense of accomplishment she had earned that day. So I searched it and downloaded it.  I found the below exerpt from a draft I never published last summer.

 I knew eight minutes would be a feat for me.  I'd been back in my running shoes for just 4 weeks and eight minutes straight was three minutes longer than I had gone in one stretch.  I know that sounds lame, but I am amazed at how age can slow you down. 

This glimpse back amazes me.  It motivates me.  It reminds me that we all take baby steps with much of what we do in this life.  One year ago I was fearful.  I doubted myself and my abilities.  I couldn't see in that small frame how much I would accomplish in a year...just a year ago I wasn't wild about running.  But today I am 39 days away from my first half marathon.  I can run 4 miles without walking, and I have completed a 5k and the 7mile Bix.  Last year I couldn't run a mile.  Today, I can and more. 

Now let me make something clear.  I am slow.  Painfully, pathetically slow.  But get this.  I am faster than someone who isn't running at all.  I am faster than I was last year, and I simply don't care about how fast I go, I only care about finishing the race.  I run to finish.

So much of my life is chaos, so much of my life is intermingled in the care of others, tending to the needs of a family, litterally running wild with errands, chores, schoolwork, phone calls, paperwork, meals, play, sports, and life.  Running is therapy.  Not always, but often when I can get out alone, it is the ONLY time I am alone.  Running is prayer time.  Running is peace.  Running is the one accomplishment I can feel or see in a day filled with laundry and dishes and messes.  I run for the achievement of it.  Oh, and running means I am guarenteed a shower (smile).

My friend Jami has MS.  Well, not officially, but she has symptoms associated with MS.  She was training for a half marathon when her symptoms started.  She is my former partner in crime turned spiritual mentor.  She is beautiful and strong. She changed my life by shining the light of Jesus into my world.  When she told me about her diagnosis, my heart was broken for her.  I thought to myself, "I want to run for her", and I decided I would run a half marathon because she couldn't.  Well, silly me.  This lady didn't need me to run for her, she decided she could do it herself.  And she did, she finished those 13.1 miles and she praised Jesus all the way.  She pretty much trumped any excuse I could think of making for why I "couldn't" run.  So, I run.  Each time I am tired and  I want to walk, I think of Jami.  I pray for her, and I keep going.  I run because I can.  You can read more about Jami's inspiring story at www.mymsmymightysavior.blogspot.com

Some days are harder than others.  I don't always want to lace up my shoes, but I never get back from a run and say I wish I hadn't accomplished that task today.  I wish I hadn't said those prayers, burned those calories, or breathed that air.  Sticking to a training program, also makes me valid.  How can I train my children to try their best, to finish a task, to do the hard things....if I don't do them myself.  Often they run with me, and the time with them is amazing.  Sharing a love for fitness, will hopefully stick with them.  The joy they experience from finishing a run, seeing that accomplishment, that is big.  That is life lesson stuff.  I run as an example.

My brother works at a store called Running Wild.  They sell shoes...running shoes.  Duh.  He has run wild his whole life.  Seriously!  But he is also a very talented runner and spent many hours working hard and training.  I stood on the sidelines of many races, and as all the people passed I would think "I should try running again too".  I wish I had stopped thinking about it sooner and actually bought a pair of shoes from my brother and hit the pavement.  This year my parents and kids got to watch four family members run the Bix.  My brother, his girlfriend Sara, me and my oldest son Ty.  We are awesome!  They smoked me.  But like I said, I finished the race and I did it with my son by my side. 

We are all running toward something.  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Phillipians 3:13-14 Slow but sure, I will get there.  I will finish the race.  With each day I will get stronger, and as I look back on my life I hope I will see the baby steps in my faith, like my running, turn into broader things. 



If you are a Quad Cities area runner, or considering giving running a try check out this great group of women. facebook.com/groups/Qcsolesisters. 

It's All In the Song

When God created the world, the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy
Job 38:7
Music says so much about who you are.  Chords and lyrics have a special way of moving our hearts.  King David played the harp to sooth Saul when he was distraught, and he wrote most of the songs in the Psalms.
 I recently had someone ponder whether a good Christian should listen to only Christian music.  It is an interesting question.  I've wondered it myself.  I've always had music in my life, and I've learned many a lesson from a song.   I think that music is a gift, to the listener, the composer, the writer, it is an outlet of creativity, imagination.  God gave us the ability to sing and play instruments, and the Bible refers to music again and again.   Songs can have a powerful impact. I think it boils down to the intent of the song as well as the listeners interpretation.   So I will defer to Steven Curtis Chapman here "Do everything you do to the glory of the one who made you".   

I started this blog for many reasons, one being, I want to have a record of who I am...what I believe in, something my kids might look back and and say, ah ha...that's why she did this or that...or ohhh, now it makes sense...I want them to know me....ME.

So music is a big part of my life.  My folks always had music on when I was growing up.  I remember my mom singing along with Stevie Nicks while riding in our old Pacer.  I thought she was a great singer (smile) I remember that still today.  My dad was/is a classic rock guy.  I was listening to 97X way before it was cool, everyone else was listening to 98.9 back when it was bubble gum pop!  Not me, dad had his Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull records on 24/7 when he was home.  All the classics, Santana, Zepplin, The Eagles.  I knew all the songs, I loved growing up in a house with a background melody always on.

I love music still today.  We always jam out in the car or at home while doing chores.  My phone has a MP3 player, and I chuckled the other day as I listened to my playlist.  It is very eclectic.  Mostly christian rock, some metal, blue grass, country, some acoustic tracks...they are all dear to me for some reason.  Hand picked out of the millions of options on Amazon.  So here is my thought...I wanted to go over each song...tell the story of how it came to be important enough to me, to include on my playlist.  I'm going to start today :)

Song #1
Cowboy Take Me Away ~ The Dixie Chicks~Fly

I said, "I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something
Wild and unruly"

I wanna sleep on the hard ground
In the comfort of your arms
On a pillow of blue bonnets
In a blanket made of stars

Oh it sounds good to me

I say, "Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue"
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to Heaven above and
Closer to you, closer to you

I wanna walk and not run
I wanna skip and not fall
I wanna look at the horizon
And not see a building standing tall

I wanna be the only one
For miles and miles
Except for maybe you
And your simple smile

Oh it sounds good to me
Yes it sounds so good to me

Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to Heaven above and
Closer to you, closer to you

I said, "I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something
Wild and unruly"

Oh it sounds so good to me

Closer to you, closer to you

If you don't know this song, you should google it and listen!  If you know me, then there are already tons of clues as to why this hits home for me. The first stanza sums up so much.  I knew I could never have a desk job...it was nature or nothing....how little did I know that I wouldn't be taming unruly equine, but human children...my own.  I bought this CD when I was in my senior year of undergrad at SIU in Carbondale.  The best thing we had ever done was move away from home.  Free to find ourselves in the wild blue.  To learn to depend on each other.  To make new friends and find ourselves. 

So this song reminds me of a 20 something me, a girl not quite sure of who I was or where I was going, but having a heart for the freedom of nature, unobscured views, and my cowboy. 

I remember sleeping under the stars as a girl scout, of gardening with my folks, pulling weeds, eating the berries off the vine, the carrots out of the ground.  I knew I always wanted something like that.  No big cities for me...the wild blue, that is where I knew I belonged. 

I find it interesting how time changes our interpretation of lyrics.  Back then I was studying to be a horse breeder, pictured myself on a ranch somewhere out west.  My cowboy was my Matt, and my unruly was wild horses.  Today..my somewhere is right here, and my unruly is my children, my daily chaos....my bliss.  Today my cowboy is God, he was the only one who could set me free.Mattt to wear the hat or the boots anyway, he prefers camo and a ball cap.)  (So he was okay with the new cowboy in my life :) 

Thanks for a great song Dixie Chicks.  One of many. 

What are your favorite songs?  I would love to hear why, or even why you love this one too!