Goodbye Chip, Or Was That Dale?

Credit: disneywikia.com

When I younger I used to watch Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers religiously.  I NEVER missed it, Chip and Dale were my favorites for a long time.

I haven’t thought about them in years…until today.

I am at a time in my life when I am experiencing a lot of firsts.  Most of them are very exciting and I love them, today however I experienced a very unfortunate first.

I was driving down the highway, on my way to the big town to do the church banking.  The speed limit on the highway that I was on is 60km/h.  That is not a very high-speed but with lots of twists and turns and moose to watch for, and other furry creatures.

I’ve been driving for almost 18 years now, and frankly I am surprised it took this long to happen, but today I finally killed a little animal while driving.

It popped up out of nowhere and there was no time to stop.  Even though I was only doing sixty it came running out and I barely saw it.  I think it would have been alright had it not stopped and stood up in the road.

I hoped to miss it but as I drove I heard the smack of the tiny little body under my studded tires.

Because of me, the world might be short a tiny little rescue ranger who takes on those cases that are too small for police.

It’s a sad, sad day!

It’s Time For A Shower!

Over the past few months my back has been hurting quite a bit. My legs have also been swelling up, so I went to see the doctor.

He told me I have sciatica, which is really an ambiguous term.  He told me however that I am not allowed to run.

But the guy did not even take my blood pressure on my visit, so I am not sure I trust his advice.  After all I have heard that exercise  helps when you have certain kinds of pain.

However, my back has been feeling pretty fine lately, perhaps a little stiff but no pain.  So today I decided to give it a go.  I went pretty easy doing my warm up and in between walks I took pretty slow.

I did 1.95 miles (around 3kms) or so my treadmill tells me.  Not to bad for the first time running in a few months.

I warm up with a five-minute walk and then do intervals of 30 seconds running, and 4.5 minute walks.  After the first run I thought I would not be able to complete the 7 cycles because I thought I was going to die.  I was even having trouble walking at this point.

There was a little voice inside me however that was saying: Just finish this walk and do one more run then you can quit.  So I kept on going, I finished the second run and figured that I at least needed to do the next walk as a cool down.  When the walk was over though, I found myself saying well just one more run.

Eventually I had convinced myself to do enough runs, that I was halfway done the program.  So I decided to keep on running, and before I knew it I was feeling good and wanted to keep on running.

I always feel great after a good run, even if it is only 30 seconds at a time.  The trick is remembering that after a break and being able to do it again….we’ll see what Monday brings!

And now it’s time for a shower

This is Proving Harder Than I Thought.

It’s not that I don’t wreck things, I do.

Photo Credit: Improbable.com

I often wreck what I am cooking for dinner, sometimes I wreck  a game I am playing by hitting the wrong button, I have broken many a dish in my time, I also often wreck the diet I am trying to follow.  Yes it is indeed safe to say that I wreck things often.

But I don’t usually wreck things on purpose.  So my initial excitement at my wreck this journal has evaporated.  I mean they actually want me to wreck something on purpose.  I realize that I knew this when I bought it, but somehow the magnitude did not sink in to my brain.

I feel the need to say that I am a little OCD when it comes to paper.  I need paper to be clean, tidy, straight.  If you were to hand me a paper that is folded too much (standard letter folding is ok, other folding not so much), or something with a coffee stain on it, I might lose my mind.

So how on earth did I figure I was going to WRECK this journal?

Perhaps it is that I am not being creative enough with it, for example; my interpretation of the page that says take this book in the shower with you, is to do just that.  Or rip this page into strips, What fun is that?  What purpose does it serve?  Then I was snooping on the web and found this, this, and things like this.

So if I am going to do this thing, I am going to need to be a lot more creative.  I’m going to need some colored pens…stay tuned!

Project Discipline: Meditation Part Two

I think part of the reason I always avoided Christian meditation was because I believed something magical was supposed to happen.  I am supposed to “feel” the presence of God.  But I never did, I would open my Bible to a passage and struggle to remain focused after I read it through.

There must be something wrong with my method I thought to myself.  I wondered what I was doing wrong and why I was not growing closer to God.  I tried everything, I tried the quiet, I tried music, I tried kneeling, opening my hands to receive…whatever it was I tried it.

I then realized that I don’t have to follow a formula, and it’s OK if I don’t feel anything.  It comes, and sometimes I reap the benefits of meditation days, weeks or even months after, and I don’t even realize it.  For example, when I am feeling particularly discouraged and Psalm 46 immediately pops into my head…how do I know that one?  I have meditated on it.  Or when I am filled with joy over a new baby and Psalm 139 comes to my mind and I am reminded to thank the Lord for this miracle.  I know that one because I have meditated on it.

Some of my best moments of meditation have been times when I don’t even realize I am doing it, when I prepare for a sermon and I am not thinking about meditation specifically.  I allow the words to sink in and they speak to me, and my congregants receive the overflow of what God says to me personally.

Meditation is not something that the average person cannot do, it is attainable for even those who are like me with short attention spans.  The point is to allow the word of God to speak to you, to draw you closer to him…even if you don’t feel it happening.

Who Knew Freezing Could Be So Fun!

I love adventures, but usually it takes some convincing for me to try something new.  Last night a friend called up and asked if I wanted to go on a short Ski Doo ride.  Being from “up along”, I’ve never been out on a Ski Doo.  It’s not that we don’t have them “up along”, but you have to go to the outskirts of the city so they are not as noticeable.  Here, you can hear the Ski Doo’s out on the Harbour frequently.

So it took some convincing of course for me to head out at around 8PM on a ride, but I did and it was fun!

credit: snowmobile.com

So as I donned my borrowed Ski Doo suit, we raced through the trails and across the ponds, over the hills, through the trees.  We flew through the air at breakneck speeds.

Ok so the picture is not of me on the Ski Doo and the people I was with were tame, knowing it was my first time.  It was indeed a good time, and as we rode across the ponds I wondered why I give in to my adventuresome side more often.

If I had stayed in last night, I would have missed the refreshment of the cold crisp air, the beauty of the frost on the trees.  The snow covering the trees on the hill.

So the moral of the story is: Don’t get to snug curled up on the couch take the opportunity for adventure, big or small.

In the words of Ferris Bueller “ Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”