It has been an interesting day with so many different topics of discussions. Work is my social life for the most part. As well it is a school house where I am taught many lessons I am lucky enough to experience through others.
For myself, lessons best learned are those I get to experience myself. Although there are those that it is just as nice to learn through others mistakes. Either way life is all about learning. To stop learning is to stop growing, to stop experiencing, and really there is nothing left after we stop. Each breath is new, and to figure out how to keep that in mind has been difficult lately as I have found myself caught up in the every day life, forgetting that it is everyday LIVING that I'm going for.
Had a great walk home with my youngest yesterday. We had been at the pool and then walked (about a mile) home, but on the way we found so many awesome distractions! First a stop at the fresh fruit stand. We were needing apples, and strawberries, but after a few samples we found plums, beets (along with instructions on what to do with them), and of course cucumbers. What a grand time my three year old and I had deciding what to bring home. Then back to our walk, only to find honeysuckle flowers (or weeds?) along the way. Of course we need to stop and pick a few for some of the girls my son knows. I did not have the heart to tell him that they were not going to survive the night, it was adorable to watch him plan who was going to get which flower. Then when one was lost we had to quickly find some more to replace it. Then there was a park on the way home as well. At this point I'm thinking that we will never get home to make dinner, much less to eat, but I am determined to be LIVING and not get caught up in the everyday life of droning onto the next thing! So we stop to play for 5 min along the way, really is 5 min so bad? There are no other commitments for the evening, so 5 min is really nothing, except for the incredible experience for watching my three year old run around smiling as he gets as much sliding time in before we start back on our way home again.
Once home we get into cleaning vegetables and making dinner. What a great 40 min though! It is all in our frame of mind. I just have to remember to get out of the rushing around mode and into the enjoying the living mode. Something to think about as the week progresses and I feel like I'm being pulled. Pulled back into societies view of what should be, of what success is to 'them', of what success is suppose to look like. Redefining this is hard but I've seen it done and know it is do-able! So here we go.... off on another adventure of not caring what anyone else thinks, and ENJOYING every minute of it!!
Have a great day!
Nicole
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Just some thoughts.....
So I have been reading 'Born to Run' again. I am picking up some interesting details I didn't see last time. I only began reading this past week and I am enjoying it all over again. Some things I would like to share.......
" It reminded me of a proverb attributed to Roger Bannister,....... 'Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up,' Bannister said'. 'It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle- when the sun comes up you'd better be running." pg.13 Just before this the author questions why we never see a wolf icing its knee, and after, he comments as to why we are the only mammal on the planet unable to rely on our legs.
Later on in the book (I'm not there yet this time through) the author Christopher McDougall goes on to find research showing that our bodies have the same characteristics of those animals who run. I find it interesting that God really must have a plan. He has equipped us with every thing we need. Our feet have been designed to do something awesome, carry us along our road, path, journey. He not only made us He made us very good.
"And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He approved it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day." Genesis 2:31 (amplified version)
Not once does it say that He mucked up on our feet! Of course I understand that we have been given the intelligence to fix things and to be creative and we should use our brains to build and live. We were made to enjoy our lives as well, to be filled to overflowing with gladness.
"I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing." John 15:11
This is what the running high is all about, I think. And it is not limited to running. I had an experience a couple of weeks ago that left me 'high' for almost two days, it was a great work out with some interesting people. It is the state of mind, or maybe the state of spirit you are in I think that determines this. For those out there in tuned with your body, mind, and spirit.... you get it. Even if you are only working on being in tuned with any of these areas, ...... you get it, or you wouldn't be working on it. There is something more to this running than just the run, isn't it great how beautifully and wonderfully made we are!
I'm not saying that running is for everyone, but the joy and gladness is for everyone in the things we were each designed to do. Each of us were designed to live with a purpose, and when that purpose is found so is the joy 'of full measure and complete and overflowing'.
I hope we all get to find this in our lives, the point where we get it. The point where it all becomes a 'runners high'. I wish you Joy.
Nicole
" It reminded me of a proverb attributed to Roger Bannister,....... 'Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up,' Bannister said'. 'It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle- when the sun comes up you'd better be running." pg.13 Just before this the author questions why we never see a wolf icing its knee, and after, he comments as to why we are the only mammal on the planet unable to rely on our legs.
Later on in the book (I'm not there yet this time through) the author Christopher McDougall goes on to find research showing that our bodies have the same characteristics of those animals who run. I find it interesting that God really must have a plan. He has equipped us with every thing we need. Our feet have been designed to do something awesome, carry us along our road, path, journey. He not only made us He made us very good.
"And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He approved it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day." Genesis 2:31 (amplified version)
Not once does it say that He mucked up on our feet! Of course I understand that we have been given the intelligence to fix things and to be creative and we should use our brains to build and live. We were made to enjoy our lives as well, to be filled to overflowing with gladness.
"I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing." John 15:11
This is what the running high is all about, I think. And it is not limited to running. I had an experience a couple of weeks ago that left me 'high' for almost two days, it was a great work out with some interesting people. It is the state of mind, or maybe the state of spirit you are in I think that determines this. For those out there in tuned with your body, mind, and spirit.... you get it. Even if you are only working on being in tuned with any of these areas, ...... you get it, or you wouldn't be working on it. There is something more to this running than just the run, isn't it great how beautifully and wonderfully made we are!
I'm not saying that running is for everyone, but the joy and gladness is for everyone in the things we were each designed to do. Each of us were designed to live with a purpose, and when that purpose is found so is the joy 'of full measure and complete and overflowing'.
I hope we all get to find this in our lives, the point where we get it. The point where it all becomes a 'runners high'. I wish you Joy.
Nicole
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Grateful Hearts
I have had some busy days over the past month. With busyness came so many things, but I have had the time to count blessings. I think this is important as I really believe that we have forgotten to do this as a society. Not everyone, but allot of us have.
Last Thursday I experienced a grateful heart. The entire day I could only feel ecstatic for all the wonderful people I have had the opportunity to meet. For those I've know for a while, I am thankful to have them in my life (even if I only get to see them every one or two years).
I am blessed in so many ways, a wonderful husband, two awesome kids, a great city where I can afford to live, schools my children can attend, grand parents for my kids, family I can hang out with (even the in-laws), the ability to work, the ability to play, the ability to feed my kids. It sounds like simple things, yet it has been a week of eye-opening as I run around and realize that we sometimes take these small things for granted. I have the tendency to get up-tight and frustrated with things easily and now I sometimes ask myself WHY? Is this something that really matters? Sometimes it is, and many times it does not, and so many others it can be a learning experience for both my children and myself if I choose to just not loose my temper and recognize the opportunity.
It is hard to have a grateful heart all the time, but I want to live here more. I want to experience life from this perspective more. It has to be a choice though. I was listening to a sermon the other day and she said 'it takes no effort to find the bad, you just have to wait and it will find you. You just have to do nothing for disease to find you. There is a choice involved for finding good. You have to choose health, this needs to be a conscious decision, then there needs to be an effort and an action.' How true when you think about it.
It strikes me as interesting; I find this to be a simple truth, and yet not so simple when you realize this is a choice we make every day. In the foods we eat, it does take longer to make our food rather than buy it already done. The activities we choose, taking our kids here and there (this can also be a great thing) yet we don't make the most of this time, or we don't find the time to do the activity with them. Small choices we make every day, and some of the time it is not a conscious decision it is just a habit of convenience.
This behaviour is learned in our society. We have been taught to consume and buy and to not think much further than our own comfort. It has to be a conscious decision when we stop to re-educate ourselves. I think about the movie "The Matrix". The scene where Neo is sitting in the chair and he needs to make a decision, one he can never go back from. Does he take the pill? or does he continue off into the blissful existence of not knowing? Once we know certain things, there really is no going back. Once we see the truth, it is some thing we can not turn away from.
This is all really heavy this morning so I think I will stop here and digest some breakfast and coffee. I will do so with a grateful heart as I watch my children enjoy the morning, and we watch the sun come out from behind the clouds.
Have a fantastic day.
Nicole
Last Thursday I experienced a grateful heart. The entire day I could only feel ecstatic for all the wonderful people I have had the opportunity to meet. For those I've know for a while, I am thankful to have them in my life (even if I only get to see them every one or two years).
I am blessed in so many ways, a wonderful husband, two awesome kids, a great city where I can afford to live, schools my children can attend, grand parents for my kids, family I can hang out with (even the in-laws), the ability to work, the ability to play, the ability to feed my kids. It sounds like simple things, yet it has been a week of eye-opening as I run around and realize that we sometimes take these small things for granted. I have the tendency to get up-tight and frustrated with things easily and now I sometimes ask myself WHY? Is this something that really matters? Sometimes it is, and many times it does not, and so many others it can be a learning experience for both my children and myself if I choose to just not loose my temper and recognize the opportunity.
It is hard to have a grateful heart all the time, but I want to live here more. I want to experience life from this perspective more. It has to be a choice though. I was listening to a sermon the other day and she said 'it takes no effort to find the bad, you just have to wait and it will find you. You just have to do nothing for disease to find you. There is a choice involved for finding good. You have to choose health, this needs to be a conscious decision, then there needs to be an effort and an action.' How true when you think about it.
It strikes me as interesting; I find this to be a simple truth, and yet not so simple when you realize this is a choice we make every day. In the foods we eat, it does take longer to make our food rather than buy it already done. The activities we choose, taking our kids here and there (this can also be a great thing) yet we don't make the most of this time, or we don't find the time to do the activity with them. Small choices we make every day, and some of the time it is not a conscious decision it is just a habit of convenience.
This behaviour is learned in our society. We have been taught to consume and buy and to not think much further than our own comfort. It has to be a conscious decision when we stop to re-educate ourselves. I think about the movie "The Matrix". The scene where Neo is sitting in the chair and he needs to make a decision, one he can never go back from. Does he take the pill? or does he continue off into the blissful existence of not knowing? Once we know certain things, there really is no going back. Once we see the truth, it is some thing we can not turn away from.
This is all really heavy this morning so I think I will stop here and digest some breakfast and coffee. I will do so with a grateful heart as I watch my children enjoy the morning, and we watch the sun come out from behind the clouds.
Have a fantastic day.
Nicole
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)