It Snowed Last Night

It snowed last night. This morning I bundled up and stepped outside. The air was fresh. The world around me was muffled. I strapped on my snowshoes and headed out into the snow-splashed woods. All around me the beauty of winter showed its best side. A splash of red marked the flight of a Cardinal. A loud chatter sounded from the branches above me as a gray squirrel greeted the day. I came to the big oak tree and stopped. I placed my hand on the rough bark and smiled. Sometimes life is this simple, serene and free from conflict.   

A Year of Running

This year I will be running my first marathon!  I am excited and little intimidated by the idea of running twenty-six miles. I decided to do this for a couple of reasons.

First, I have always loved running. As a child I ran everywhere. Then adulthood happened with its many demands, schooling, working, childrearing, and just taking care of the vast assortment of obligations, scheduling, home maintenance and did I mention childrearing, leaving me with little time to pursue any hobby of my own. After my children left home I joined my daughter in running and the joy I felt as a child was rekindled. I ran several 5ks and even got my husband into the sport for a season.

Then I had a car accident and suffered a broken nose and concussion. Over the next four years I struggled with severe headaches after any kind of physical exertion, both cardio and strength training. I would be woken up in the middle of night with sharp, stabbing pain in my temples and across my forehead. The next day would be a day of very little activity and ibuprofen. Sometimes the headache would linger for a week or more making it difficult to get much of anything accomplished. During this time I was receiving treatment from a chiropractor and went through physical therapy and the frequency and intensity of my headaches slowly diminished, allowing me to do more, but not disappearing completely. My oldest daughter then talked me into trying an eating program called the Whole 30, basically giving up processed foods, grains, soy and dairy, which she had found made a big difference in how she felt. After two weeks of faithfully following the plan I discovered the final piece to my headaches, dairy. Now I love dairy, I can’t imagine a world without cheese, especially on pizza, but it was hard to argue with the evidence. Eat dairy, suffer headaches due to inflammation of my sinuses. Do not eat dairy and be headache free, but what about pizza on Friday night? There are a few dairy free cheese substitutes out there, though they aren’t quite the same and my husband objected to the substitution. A bit of experimentation lead to the discovery that if I was dairy free all week I could have my regular pizza on Friday night. I would be a little lethargic on Saturday, but now I could run again. Yay! And I did a little bit here, a little bit there. I did some hiking and started to realize that even though I had lost fitness I could get it back. Which lead me to my second reason for running a marathon this year.

This is a milestone birthday year for me and I decided to something big for myself to celebrate. What better way to celebrate life than to work toward becoming as fit as I can. My daughter helped me set up a training program. It started with running a 5k in December and continues through the year with a 10k in March, a half marathon in May and a 20-mile race in September leading to running the Twin Cities Marathon in October. My husband, in a show of support, has committed to running with me. Now all I need to do is run.

A Letter To Santa

Dear Santa,

My parents told me I had to write you a letter about what a good girl I have been this year. My brother told me I had to write a list of all the things I want you to bring me for Christmas. He said make it long to make sure I get a bunch of toys and not just a dumb old dolly. I'm not sure where he gets the idea I even want a dolly. I've been looking at this really cool science lab kit where you can make slimy creatures and even a volcano. Some of my classmates tell me to list one big thing and several small things, that way I would be sure to get the big thing. Some of my other classmates tell me you aren't real and the list is for my parents so they don't have to put much thought into what to get me. There was this commercial on TV about kids in other parts of the world that don't get anything for Christmas, they don't even have enough to eat and the most precious gift you can get is helping out someone in need. My best friend's family celebrates a different holiday and you don't stop at their house. I would like you to. My friend is really nice and she is my best friend. The man at church says we are celebrating our savior Jesus Christ's birthday. So why don't we have birthday cake with a gazillion birthday candles on it, since Jesus was born so long ago? I would like that. A big cake for the whole world to share with so many candles on it all the bad people would look at the bright light and stop being bad and everyone would sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles and be kind to each other.

Love,
Elizabeth





Merry Christmas from Sherry Lynne

Two In The Morning

It happened again last night!

I woke up at two in the morning.

The room was dark. The dogs were asleep. The house was still.

I lay quiet, waiting to drift back into the soft embrace of sleep when the whisper of a sound slipped through the air and tickled my ear. I froze. There was nothing to be heard. I relaxed and rolled onto my side.

I felt the light kiss of breath in my face. My eyes flew open.

My mouth opened to scream until I recognized my daughter hugging her teddy bear waiting to be lifted up.

Finding your way

Wow! It has been more than a month since I found (took) time to write. For something I want to do, I seem to find all kinds of reasons not to. What’s up with that?

Then someone posted a quote on Facebook that said ‘You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need’ by Jerry Gillis and it got me thinking about the choices I have made over the course of my life. I have hesitated to pursue the things I want to do for fear of being called out as a fake, because developing practical skills and making money was emphasized in my family, and fear of being laughed at. Not that I am opposed to making money but as long as I can pay the bills shouldn’t ‘t I be doing something that energizes me, that inspires me and brings a calmness to my life that didn’t exist in all the other things I have done in my life? Shouldn’t I let go of the fear and insecurity I have let control my life and live free?

I just don’t believe life should be an endless list of chores or controlled by fear. That the work each of us does should be meaningful to each of us and bring a sense of well-being to our lives. That the fear can and should be let go until it no longer dictates the choices we make or not make and that the best choice is foraging ahead despite the fear.

So, no more hiding behind the chore list and filling my days with the perpetual activities of day to day life which ground me, miring me in the repetition of endless routine and holds me hostage to my personal fears.

Its time to soar!

Remedy

Achoo!

She made a quick grab for a tissue. The cold virus that had invaded her home, reducing her husband and children to irritable, aching puddles of stuffy heads, had finally broken down her defenses.

Achoo!

This can’t be! I have too many things to do! Her thoughts swirled, losing coherence as her body prepared to fight the invisible invaders. A slow creep of fatigue and filling sinuses sent her shuffling to the medicine cabinet. If only it was so simple. She closed the cabinet and made her way back to bed knowing sleep was the best remedy of all.