I heard that petting your cat helps lower blood pressure. If so and if I had a cat, it would be hairless today. Alas, there were no cats available. Coloring is also said to relieve anxiety and calm a person. Now, that was available for me to purchase so I spent an inordinate amount of …
What is your passion? What drives you? What is it that you just cannot not talk about? What does your mind go to in every single conversation you have? I didn’t use to know the answer to these questions. Vaguely, I might have answered “Jesus” because that seemed like the right answer and in many …
Where does one start when summarizing a trip to Israel? Is it a day-by-day recap of sites visited? It is by recounting the food we ate? The weather we experienced? The lack of lines at the sites? Or is it my personal experience at each site, what I felt the Holy Spirit show me in …
When you read this, I will be somewhere over Europe on a journey to Israel that has been in the works for over a year. No. This isn’t an April Fool’s joke. I will not post while I am there but look forward to sharing my experiences when I return. Your prayers are appreciated as …
The fourth lesson I learned on the run is repetition. In order to run, you need to run. There are no shortcuts to developing lung capacity and endurance. I started by running a half mile and then a little further and then I could run a mile. Soon, I could run three miles. After that, …
The third lesson I learned on the run is the value of stretching. Often times, after I returned from a run, I moved right into the rest of the day. I didn’t take time to cool down or to stretch. Then I developed injuries. The days when I took five minutes to stretch at the …
Running provides a person many life lessons. My motivation to start exercising came from the rising number on the scales and the knowledge that my future health was, ultimately, up to me. While I can’t control everything, I can adopt certain habits that help my body to work optimally. For a few years, that meant …
Years ago, I joined those who call themselves runners. I started out slowly, running a mile or two and then three. In a few weeks time, I ran a 5K and then another and eventually, I ran two half marathons — 13.1 miles. I felt quite accomplished. One particular 5K I ran was in the …
I just finished my workout. The instructor mentioned her motivation in life right now is to protect her energy. Protect your energy. What does that mean? My first thought is I don’t have energy to do everything so I need to protect it, use it wisely. Protecting my energy means I say no. I say …
Last week I talked about anxiety. As I consider pausing and anxiety in the same basket, something becomes abundantly clear to me. Next week, my husband and I, along with about thirty-eight others, are traveling to Israel. Now, I have overcome my anxiety about air travel. I have overcome my anxiety about air travel across …