Writing, running, photography, food, family, and faith. Not in that order. It's my life here for your reading pleasure.
Why the blog?
I write as the Spirit moves me. I have prayed about what I'm supposed to do with my life a lot. A lot. Writing. Writing is what I believe God is leading me to do. Whether or not He wants me to write for anyone to read is His business. Much of my writing has been therapy for me so maybe I'm the only one who is supposed to read it. So, why the Blog? As a sounding board, a note pad, a place to keep my ideas and thoughts. A place to share and promote my books, and photography. Written prayers, a place to vent. Possibly, even a place for the unknown reader to learn about the love of Jesus.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Hello readers!
Quick update to let you all know I'm still here. I'm still running, finished the New York marathon as well as the Florida marathon in Melbourne, Fl. Next up is Rome, Italy.
Although I haven't been writing, I have been very busy learning and pursuing photography. Please take a look at all the sites I am selling on:
Much to my surprise and delight, I have sold quite a few photos! I'm also taking lots of photography, Lightroom, and PhotoShop classes to make my pictures as close to perfect as possible.
Enjoy the life God gave you. Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.
If you're even a little bit familiar with the Bible, you know there are many, many passages about patience. If you know me even a little bit, you'd think I'd never read the Bible.
Yeah, I hear you laughing. It's not even a little bit funny. Patience is the one thing I lack. I'm a 'do it now' kind of woman.
It's not that I have absolutely no patience. After all I'm a marathon runner. Training takes time. Lots of time. You don't go from 0 to 26.2 in one day. It takes time... translate here to : patience.
Let me tell you a story. It's a sad story with a happy ending and a moral. You see, one day I was doing some cleaning up. My husband and I travel quite a bit and my housekeeping skills are, well, lacking. Plus my adult daughter had just moved back home. We had lived in our house for a little over 10 years and I never lived anywhere for that length of time. Deep cleaning was done twice in my lifetime - move in and move out. Needless to say, our home needed a thorough deep clean. After much discussion, my husband and I decided to hire a cleaning crew to do it for us. To be honest, I hate to clean but I love a clean house. Toilets are just gross. Of course, what do you do when strangers are due to arrive to clean your house? Clean of course. I called my son the morning before and asked him to come help move a very large and very heavy coffee table from the downstairs living room to an upstairs bedroom. He was due around 1:30. At about noon I decided to move said coffee table from the dining room to the staircase. A distance of about 15 feet. It was to save time of course.
Once the coffee table had been slid to the staircase, on a bath mat because it was heavy, I looked over at the other, smaller and lighter coffee table to decide which one I really wanted to haul up the stairs.
In a split second, the coffee table fell over and landed on my left foot. BAM! Impatience just broke my foot.
Seriously. It was bad. I screamed and cried. Not because I was in pain, which I was, but because I had a marathon to run in Montreal in 2.5 weeks!
To make a long story short. I was diagnosed with a small chip fracture. Boot, crutches, no running were prescribed. Many tears were shed.
I pulled up my big girl, impatient panties and decided I was going to heal fast. Two weeks fast. I kept the boot on and no weight bearing for as long as I could stand it. 6.5 days. Exactly. The boot was heavy and the crutches were dangerous. I nearly fell down the stairs twice, nearly fell getting in and out of the shower several times, and even with using two different types of crutches I was a danger to myself just standing up.
On day 6.5 I took off the boot, threw away the crutches (not literally, they are still in my closet), and stood up. Carefully. My heart pounded with fear. What if it hurt? What if I couldn't walk? What if I put a little weight on it and made it worse?
To alleviate my fears I requested a copy of my x-rays. Got the CD. Not films, a CD. It was blank. I wanted to scream. However, the official report was in the envelope and it read, ahem... "may be an avulsion..." MAY BE. I loved those words.
"I'm going to run!" I said to myself excitedly. "I'm going to run!"
I tried. Didn't work. Sure, I could walk, but there was pain in my arch. "You're calf is tight, roll it," came advice from strangers. I rolled it. Still hurt. Felt better, but still some discomfort. I stretched, rolled, wiggled and moved my foot as much as possible. Hit the floor and did every floor exercise that didn't require weight on my foot that I could find. (My abs are rock hard!).
Monday before I was to leave for Montreal I tried to run. First, I walked for three miles. Then I took a few running steps. My gait was short and there was pain. Walked another mile. Didn't feel good. Took a break and stretched my foot. Walked some more. Tried to run again. No go. Stride was like a little tiny trot and it hurt. I cried the rest of the day. That was that. No running in Montreal.
My husband, saint that he is, decided to go to Montreal with me to make sure I didn't run. That, in and of itself made the whole ordeal worth it. I got my husband all to myself for five glorious days. The weather was cool and sunny except for Friday morning. We went sight-seeing, walked the underground city, went shopping, ate - a lot. And, for the first time ever I got to see the winners of not one but four races - 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon. Plus, I took some awesome photos of the city and recalled a little high school French.
Today, I saw the orthopedist. He said my x-rays were fine, normal. However, the foot still needed a little more time. That's okay, I have a little time. A little, 37 days to be exact. I'll be able to participate in the New York marathon if I can just be...oh...what's that horrid word ......
PATIENT.
Right. Patient. One day at a time. God's time, not mine. I'm slowly realizing I'm not 18 anymore. I'm 51. I physically cannot do some things I used to do at 18, 30, and even 40. However, I couldn't run a marathon at 18 and I've already done 7 starting at the age of 40-something. I'll ask for help now and then and not try to do it all, all by myself, right now.
Patience is a virtue. Maybe I'll have that virtue, one day, maybe. I'm getting there. For now, I need to memorize and live these verses:
Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. Proverbs 14:29 (moving a 75-pound table displays folly)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 (Affliction demands patience, demands prayer.)
Pray for me while I'm attempting to be patient. I need it. If you need me to pray for you to have patience I certainly will. Attached is a video of some of my many photos. Enjoy.
In my never-ending search for the perfect chocolate recipe, dairy-free of course, I decided to try something new. There were two brownie recipes that I really liked. One was baked, the other no-bake. One used avocado, the other didn't. Hmm. How could I mash up the recipes? I had recently purchased coconut flour because the store I frequent was out of flaked, which I use regularly so why oh why did they have to run out? In any event, I had on hand avocados, coconut flour, an assortment of raw nuts, and my usual 5-pound bag of dairy-free dark chocolate. With my I-Pad open to both recipes I mentally mashed up the ingredients and came up with this. Viola. It's so yummy. INGREDIENTS: 2 Haas Avocados coconut flour cacao powder (preferably organic and not cocoa powder) espresso powder raw honey (if you're a purist vegan, substitute Agave) hot water 2 Majool dates raw cashews dairy-free dark chocolate chips 2 bowls, 4 x 4 pan, plastic wrap, food processor First: In the first bowl, mash or puree 2 avocados. Add one cup of coconut flour and 1/2 c cacao powder. Stir well. Heat 1/2 c water to very hot, not boiling. Add 1 TBS of espresso powder. Once dissolved, pour into bowl and stir well. Add 1/4 c honey. Second: Grind 2 large Majool dates with 1 cup of raw cashews. Put this into bowl #2. Then, grind 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips. Third: Add 1 TBs of the date/cashew mix & 1 TBS of the chocolate chips (ground) into the first bowl. Fourth: Add the remainder of the ground chocolate into bowl #2 then add 1/4 c honey.
Mixing crust and filling of brownies
5th: Line your pan with plastic wrap. Make sure you have enough to cover all sides.
Pan for avocado brownies
Spoon bowl #2 onto the bottom of the pan and press firmly. This is your crust. Spoon bowl #1 on top of that. Cover with plastic wrap and press until the mixture is flattened.
Line with plastic
Place mixture into refrigerator for 2-3 hours or the freezer for 30 minutes. Cut into bars. Keep remainder covered and in refrigerator or freezer.
Facing the past. Today I did something that I never want to do again, willingly, something I haven't done, willingly, in a very long time (if ever). Hope I never have to again. I went to a cemetery. On Facebook today, someone wrote, "Today is Rainbow Baby Day. A “rainbow baby” is a baby that is born following a miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death or infant loss. In the real world, a beautiful and bright rainbow follows a storm and gives hope of things getting better. The rainbow is more appreciated having just experienced the storm in comparison." I'd never heard of it so I looked it up. There is such a thing. I didn't know. Of course, I quickly posted that my daughter and myself are both Rainbow Babies. Then I thought for a minute, that's not quite true. My son is a Rainbow Baby, too. Then, the memories came back. The memories of the deaths, miscarriages. The memories of the abortion. The memories of the feelings that flooded me...when those events occurred. And I wanted to do something to commemorate, remember. I've never done it before. Never. I don't have a grave, or tombstone. I'd fought so hard to forget, forgive. You never forget. So, I decided to go find a cemetery, and remember. I got a pink teddy bear and some fake flowers I had in a closet and I went to an old cemetery. One way out in the woods. I found some really old gravestones of children and I took some pictures of them. On my way out, I found four headstones. Unmarked. Two together, and two next to them. Four. They were all babies. I swore I wasn't going to cry. Fought the tears harder than the oppressed emotions. It's in the past. I've gotten over it. But....I haven't. So, I took a picture of those four gravestones without the teddy bear. somehow it seemed right not to. They had no visible names and I didn't want to add or subtract from the visual. I wanted to remember it the way it was. I can't remember all the dates. I kind of do, but I wish I had the actual dates. Because, those were my babies. Whether I wanted them or not at the time. Some I did, some I didn't. They never were given names, either. Whether I had emotions about them at the time...some I did, some I didn't. They are still a part of me that need to be remembered and never forgotten. It has taken me a long time to forgive myself. I know God has and he has forgotten my sins. Now it seems wrong for me to forget. Now I have pictures of headstones to prove I didn't.
Today was long run day. It's Florida and it's hot - 75 at 5:30 am to be exact. I've got my camelback filled with water, fuel, and my trusty head lamp. 16 miles to do and hopefully do them as quickly as possible to beat the heat. Ha!! No such thing. It's hot. I keep telling myself, "It's okay. Train in the heat, race in the cold." Remind me I said that in August. In any event, my next two marathons will be cold - Montreal and then New York in November.
Speaking of New York. I'm running the New York Marathon under the fundraising umbrella of Team World Vision. I have a goal of $5000.00 to raise. This money will be going towards child protection in Africa and thus far I have raised $810.00.
Fundraising isn't my thing. So, why did I sign up for it?
I signed up to fundraise for these beautiful faces. Read their stories here. See the woman in the bottom picture? She's gathering drinking water for her children (photo credit Scott Stauffacher). Where did you get your water today?
So the oops. I ran pretty slow and was drenched with sweat, including my socks. I swung up my left foot to the countertop to check my toenails when I felt a sharp pain in my left 2nd toe as it clenched. You remember I broke that toe over a year ago. Orthopedist told me it could take a year or more to completely heal. Great... That hurt so bad!! Praying it doesn't hinder my running. If I'm in pain next run, Monday, I will remember these faces and remind myself that I have such a blessed life. A little broken toe is nothing compared to the living conditions and the dangers these precious children, God's children, face every day.
Next time you are hot, sweaty, in a little pain (or a lot), remember these children. Make a difference in their life by donating. As little as $50 can provide water for one child for their lifetime.
