Perception...

Every morning, I face my own personal Everest, i.e. the ever-growing mountain of dirty clothes that is taking up over half of my master bath. Yes, we have a hamper but it has long overflown its brim, spilling out into the floor and thus creating this mass of stress and irritation for me. I try to ignore it but it's much too large for that. This past Sunday as I was getting ready for church I decided to move this mountain and step on the scale. I don't think I have to tell you what an awful decision that was! As I continued getting dressed, I grumbled and grumbled about the mountain and chastised myself for being lazy and undisciplined. About that time, the bathroom door opened and Teddy scampered into the room, completely oblivious to my rantings, and proceeded to make a nice, comfortable bed out of that mountainous mess.

The end result of his pawing and rearranging was this nice, warm, cozy bed. Then it hit me, this concept of perception. I looked at this mess and saw only my inadequacies -- Teddy saw only a cushy soft pile. What a smart guy that Teddy is -- he sees only the good from the bad. I learned a lot from Teddy that day. Yes, I still need to do my laundry. In fact, there is always going to be laundry -- hopefully not this much at one time but life is not about a clean house or made bed. When it comes my time to face my Creator, I will not look back on my life and say, "I sure wish I had done my laundry!" I'm going to try to live my life in such a way as to see all the good in things and not the negative. This pile of clothes, instead of causing me stress helps me to see my blessings -- I have nice clothes to wear, a nice, big master bath to pile them up in and a really nice washer & dryer that works great should I ever decide to do actually use them.

I'll leave you with a poem my dad used to say to me when I was little:

'Twixt the optimist and pessimist, the difference is droll;

The optimist sees the donut - The pessimist sees the hole.

Gotta run...

~Lisa =)

St Jude Half Marathon Race Report 12.6.08

Until the finish line photo and my pic with the 2 Elvi are posted, this is my proof that I did in fact finish today's half marathon. There were a couple of times today when I was a bit concerned that I might not. I thought I felt strong at the start -- I've been wrong before and today was no exception. The 1st 2 miles were brutal as my legs were absolutely killing me. That's the price you pay when you don't take the time to stretch properly. I pulled over and went thru my whole routine. Much better! From mile 2 to exactly 8.5 (I looked at my Garmin the minute they started) I was really in the zone. In fact, if I could carve out this stretch, I would say this was the strongest I've felt in a VERY long time -- slow but STRONG. Then at 8.5 miles my calves started twitching, spasming, tightening and eventually locking up. I tried everything I knew but it wasn't until a knight on a white horse came to my rescue. Well, actually it was a guy on a bike but the rescue part is true to form. He showed me a stretch that I've done many times but just didn't think to use and it helped a lot, well actually only a little but it got me from I'm quitting to I think I can crawl the rest of the way to I think I can walk it in. By mile 11 I was running again -- albeit very slow. But it gave me the confidence that I could run across the finish line. And isn't that what really counts? Looking good for your finish line photo and being able to make it up that LONG flight of stairs to enjoy a cold piece of pizza and a warm bottle of water?

Although this race was not one of my best performances, I had such a great time! Seeing Malia at the start line and Susan at the end was a great way to b0ok-end my effort. I didn't get to see Norma but she texted me at the start as well as afterward. She DID IT!!! My congratulations go out to her and all the 1st timers, especially Lance, Susan's friend who ran his 1st MARATHON in 4 hrs and some change -- totally UNBELIEVABLE! Lance, you ROCK!!

By the way, my Garmin finishing time was 3:08 which sounds much better if you pretend I'm 105 yrs old and only 1 week recovered from a full hip replacement...come on, squint real hard and visualize it in your mind. See how much better that is!!!

Well, after a long nap I think I'm going to have a bite to eat -- the cold pizza has officially worn off.

Gotta run...
Lisa