Encounter with Grace

Today some friends and I encountered Grace.

Grace is 95 and she lives alone in a mobile home park here in town. She had a stroke a few years ago and has a hard time keeping up with maintenance – especially the yard work. And, she can be fined if her yard isn’t up to snuff.

So, we went over to help her out. I brought my electric hedge trimmers and started looking for an outlet – all the exterior outlets were dead. So, Grace took me to her shed where she had both a 50’ and a 100’ extension cord, and took me in the house to plug it in to a known “hot” outlet. (we later figured out that she had tripped a GFI breaker in her bathroom, killing a bunch of outlets around her place). She showed me a portrait of herself at age 16 “very pretty” I said. The she showed me one of her at 38 – “still a looker – what a smile!” I said. Then she told me “ever since my stroke, my lip just lays there on my chin and I can’t really smile any more – but thanks for being kind”.

We started out focused on the front – it faces the street and is where the “yard police” would look for faults. As we worked our way around, I realized just how much she had created in this space.

Grace started all this landscaping when she was in her 80’s.

She also breeds birds. But not so many any more – too much work to take care of more than the 5 or 6 she has.

Of course, there is one key ingredient in Graces garden…

Now – who do you think got the better blessing today?  

50 by 50

My Uncle just got a nice write up in the Reno newspaper. At 62, he completed the Death Ride - 130 miles up (and down) 5 famous California passes. He's in great shape and his discipline is inspiring to me.

One of the areas where I struggle is in my personal fitness. Over the last 7 years or so, my weight has trended up and the trend really accelerated after I quit smoking 3 1/2 years ago.

Two years ago I went on a fitness jag, and even though I had a wonderful trainer, I wasn't smart about the way I approached it. She offered me 2 calorie plans - 2100 per day (easier to sustain) or 1900 per day (faster results). I thought "if 2100 is good and 1900 is better, why not aim for 1400 or 1500?" After about 3 weeks, she asked to see my food log and then gave me the stink eye - my body had shut down because it thought I was starving - especially because I was doing 8 or 9 workouts a week with one rest day. That 3 week period of no weight loss - which was my fault - really killed my motivation.

This ties in with a recurring theme for me - always trying to do things "my way".

Anyway, I ended up not achieving my goal. After a while, I stopped going to the gym, cranked back up my eating and drinking and gained the 50 pounds back that I had lost, plus an extra 10 for good measure.

We rejoined the gym over the weekend and this morning I was up at 5:00 for a workout. I even have a lot of the workouts written down from my trainer and plan on using those.

My publicly stated goal is to drop 50 pounds by my 50th birthday in November.

This time, I'm going to be smarter about my approach.

You Can't Run Away

So the thing is, my friend Steve @http://www.elchupacabrawrites.com/ in Costa Rica asked people to help fill in for him with his blog. He's so busy being a Missionary, Facility Manager, National Champion Football Player / Coach, Dad, Husband and facial hair impresario that he sometimes falls behind on his writing.

I've ragged on him enough times for not being timely with messages (like return emails) that when he asked for help I felt like I just had to offer.

I didn't really realize (OK, maybe I did) that it had been so long since I posted my own inaugural message. And now that someone like Steve linked to me, I'd better start keeping it moving. I mean, if someone actually took the time to look or set up an alert or follow me and they never saw anything new that would be as douchey as not answering your friends when they try to keep in touch - wouldn't it? I get it - I started this thing and I shouldn't run away from it.

I hope there are other Dad's, Husbands, business professionals, motorcyclists, and Christ followers out there who will be able to relate.

Thanks for checking out my feeble first attempts at a blog.

Well, Here Goes!

I love to write - and I've worked hard to develop my skills over many years. But I also feel like if you're going to write something and put it out there (like on the Internet) you ought to have something meaningful to say. Something that will make people glad they invested their time in the first place.

In addition to participating in member forums for people with whom I have common interests (e.g.the Yamaha Cruisers forum http://www.yamahamotorcycleforum.com/), I've been watching and gaining loads of inspiration from some of my friends who blog. I have one friend in particular who is a major/minor celebrity in the blogosphere. She blows people away with her honesty, heart, writing skills and - not to put it too bluntly, cajones. If you know me you probably know that I'm talking about @JamieTheVWM. Thanks for all the encouragement, my friend!

So I've got some level of talent, a not-too-well-defined goal, and a lot of inspiration. What to do?

For me, its easy to share about those things that drive me and make me happy. Those things that make me feel closer to my God, my family and the people all around me. I suppose I could write about all the times I get confused, hurt, angry and misdirected, but all that would do is prove that I'm human and badly in need of redemption. Going back to the axiom of respecting the time people might invest in reading my blog, I think its best to try to focus on things they didn't know already.

I expect this blog will end up being a kind of running faith story. Like the time my (non-religious) family was at the hospital, having just made the decision to discontinue my Grandfather's life support. My uncle remembered that for all of his sometimes hurtful behavior, Grandpa had become a Christian some years back and he wondered about having a chaplain come pray over him before the end. How at that moment I remembered our Pastor saying we are all ministers for Christ and how I felt led to offer to pray over him - all the while expecting them to turn me down - and how my family graciously invited me to proceed. How when I finished, I turned and saw that my dad, aunt and uncle were holding each other and praying along with me. How in the midst of a sorrowful event, the best kind of joy and love can be there for those who ask for it.

I can say this - we live in a world where miracles and blessings - both small and large, happen all the time.