Thursday 29 January 2015

100 Days

100 Days is a reminder that I saw while looking up some information on my spring marathon. 100 days are you ready? Was the exact line I found myself reading from the website.
I think to myself no I am not ready to run a full marathon right now.

The month of January was a month in which I really wanted to ramp up my training.
January has had four Hospital emergency visits for family members.
January had my furnace conk out and I had a "perfect storm" of strange coincidence`s that were nobody`s fault that left my house without heat for three consecutive days.
Training for a marathon is a very selfish pursuit, however even the most selfish person should realize family comes first and a planned run may have to wait for another day, or week.

Psalms 23 is known as David`s or the shepherds psalm.
A verse we overlook a lot as we go about our very busy lives.

Verse 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
              He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.

I have used the statement "training for a marathon is like running to the edge of a cliff and trying to stop right before you go over. If you train too hard you risk being injured and not being able to make it to the starting line. If you don`t train hard enough you run the risk of injury during the race and not being able to finish."

Possibly this time was being used as an opportunity to rest my body more than I would have liked, while dealing with each new stressful situation that seemed to occur every day.
When we go through tough times it is how we deal with them and our attitude that is most important.
It is easy to look at people with everything seemingly going perfectly well and feel envious while our times seem hard.
I found by looking at others who were going through a much tougher time than myself I was able to put my circumstances in perspective and have a thankfulness about my life.

Toronto Sick Children`s Hospital was a place we went to one day.
As my daughter was discharged with a non life threatening problem I thought of the other children we had seen with serious health issues who may never come home.
I thought of a friend of mine. A woman who is a volunteer for Ratanak International who is going through an enormous medical crisis right now along with her newborn daughter.

The third morning without heat my thermostat told me it was 9C in my house. I was cold, a little bit irritable and moved very slowly about my house with a headache after a terrible night sleep. I thought of homeless people who were outside during this cold spell and how I was protected from the wind and also I knew my situation was temporary.
I also realized these events were spread out evenly over the whole month so my family did have a chance to react to each one. What if three things happened the same day? I know things would have been much tougher for us.

One positive of the furnace adventure was that I was able to upgrade my computer skills a little, much to my daughter`s relief. I was also able to finish a writing and post pictures to a magazine that asked for some information on my past runs and walkathons.
If this article makes it to print it would be a tremendous opportunity for letting many people know of Ratanak`s work in Cambodia in regards to their work in helping children rescued from sex slavery.
I was told I had 700 words for the article. I finished at 701 and had to cut so much of my writing to reach this number. Kudos to those of you who read this blog as I do not keep track but for sure you must be reading thousands of words each time I write.

This is the picture the magazine approved of. Gloria likes it as well.
I do not enjoy having my picture taken and since a race is usually not fun smiling is not often seen.
Here I am smiling. The reason I had just finished the first 7kms of the Egg Nog Jog race which is a course straight up two giant hills The photographer was waiting at the 8km mark which is the reason for my smile as I realized I had finished the worst and the rest of the course was flat.

 
This is a  quote I found on my computer on my furnace adventure day. It is by Michael Baisden.
Most men aren`t smart enough to realize that the higher you elevate your woman, the less available she is for other men.
When you break her down, you make her accessible to anyone she thinks will treat her better.

My role as a father and husband will probably be the biggest influence on the choice of men my daughter`s will meet later in life. If I tell them they are no good, take out my frustrations of life on them and mistreat their mother in front of them they will probably accept the same.
If I tell them how special they are, deal with them patiently as they find themselves, and always treat their mother with love, kindness, and respect they will probably demand this themselves.
17 years into a marriage with the most beautiful woman in the world I hope I have modelled this.

100 days are you ready? No I am not ready. However I do believe I am on track, in that  I am exactly where God wants me to be, and if I am called to run this race He will find a way for me to complete it.

Larry