Kickboxing and a 5K Race

I have some good news...well, depending on what happens in two months, it could be bad news. If there is one or two things that you would never think I would do, it would be to take a kick boxing class and signing up for a 5K Race.

Well guess what? I am DOING BOTH!!! Can you believe it? I can't. I have been a little unmotivated lately. Don't ask why, just some things bring you down that's all. Anyway, I did A LOT of praying and writing about what I needed to "kick" me into gear again. Then it happened. Since I was in the Jaycees, I got to help put together a 5k race on July 4th. Serectly, I always wanted to be a part of it but because of my weight, I couldn't. Well....I now believe, and I DO believe that if I work hard, I can actually take part in one and complete it. Then the idea came to mind.

So, I signed up to run in a 5k race at Harvard University on Sunday, March 30th. It will benefit fallen firefighters and police officers Do I know anyone who is a firefighter???? hmm. The main sponsor is an Irish pub in town. That just puts the exclamation point on the process. ;-)

Someone at the church, who is a Boston Marathoner, offered to train me and work with me so that I can actually run the event, instead of just walk. I can't believe this. I am actually going to do this! So keep me in your prayers because I have a lot of work ahead and I am looking forward to completing this goal!

I also started attending a kick boxing class at the gym. Man o man, what a workout that is. You would think that my legs would be the parts of my body that are soar, but it's the ARMS that are kickin my butt right now. The force and push that I put behind them is the "kicker". But it feels good at the end. And it's fun.

Disclaimer - that picture is not really me, in case you were wondering. Just thought I would put a little humor into the post.

Thanks for checking in.

Laugh Until You Pee In Your Pants

I have not posted lately. Not much to really tell you about. January is pretty quiet up here for the most part. Well..wait a second...there is the whole New England Patriots in the Superbowl thing happening. Can you imagine? Red Sox won the world series. New England is about to win the SB. Can the Celtics be far behind?? Can't say too much about the bruins. touchy subject for the passionate hockey goers.

I am looking at my Christmas tree. Yep, it's still up. Not sure why. Just laziness I guess. I have been in a thinking mood for a while. Do you ever over analyze your thoughts and actions? One of my biggest problems is that I do that. Well, I am on overkill with the over thinking and it can be a little stressful.

I saw two movies recently, 1 - The Bucket List and 2- Great Debaters. The Bucket List has two great actors in it, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was actually a fun movie with some pretty serious undertones in it. They make a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket". I am not giving anything away when I share that one item is "laugh until I cry". I would even go a step further and say, "laugh until you pee in your pants".

Do you remember the last time you laughed that hard? I think for me, it was in college. Unfortunately, I even had kaki pants on too. But it was a great feeling - on the inside at least. Laughing is such a good release too. Maybe one day, I will get to laugh that hard again.

The other movie, Great Debaters, took me into a place that you don't hear about much...well, unless you are a friend of Tiger Woods. In this movie, you are reminded of what happened to African Americans and lynching. You see and feel the pain that they went through. You are reminded of the fight and determination that is needed in order to make your way to a place that you deserve to be because you are a human being. Why do people have to fight so hard to be treated fairly? You have the ones who don't have to fight because they have all the resources at their disposal, all the backing that a spoiled rich kid needs, all the support that a rich favored government caters to....they don't have to fight at all and can't understand this other world called the real world.

It is so strange to see how this is still happening today.
"The land of the free". Well, nothing seems free right now. We can't even travel where we want to - embargo on Cuba keeps us from being free. The Bush "economy" keeps anything from being free. The homeless don't have it free, yet we spend trillions of dollars to fight a war started on lies.
"The home of the brave". Well, the only ones that are brave are the ones fighting to survive. It is easy to be brave when you have everything handed to you on a silver platter; when you have the six figure income; when you have a gov't who gives you all the breaks that you want; and when you live in the most comfortable mansion on the block, sheltered from the "real world" yet again.

Obviously, I have never been lynched. But I can understand the feeling of constantly fighting to make your way to a place that you deserve to be. Whether I want to be a woman minister from the South or someone who can actually be called "beautiful" despite her body size, I had to fight through my own discrimination.

I can't preach in the south and I am not pretty enough to be a successful trainer or someone's "other half". (In the past, I have been told, 1 - that I do not "look" like I love God; 2 - you don't look like a "successful enough" trainer for our company; 3- you don't have the "richmond" experience to be a teacher here; 4 - you are a woman and you can preach in our pulpit; 5 - you don't have that little extra something that Steven had (the male teacher they hired over me) 6-you were a mistake) It all adds up.

Thankfully now, I am in the right place - I am in a place now that accepts me for who I am, for what I do and for what I am capable of being. I get to finally be me. I get to finally fight with the good people instead of against the bad.

It cracks me up that we have the potential to have make history in the United States by voting for the first woman president or voting for the first African American president. 20 years ago, that wasn't even a forethought. But instead of celebrating those possibilities, they are arguing and fighting over he said/she said stuff. How nice it would be to be able to finally tell a little girl or an African American boy that they can be whatever they want to be...only they have to see this.

So close and yet so far. Man, I can't wait to be able to pee in my pants some day.

Good preaching from the South

Ok - I got to hear one of the great preachers yesterday - Dr. Will Willimon. He currently serves as a Bishop with the United Methodist Church in Alabama. However before that calling....he served as Dean of the most beautiful chapel in North Carolina...Duke University Chapel. He was up here yesterday to be a part of a preaching series at Andover Newton Theological School and I got to hear him!

The series is called "Is Preaching Relevant?" The school has several "known" and two well known "great preachers" coming to speak on the topic. What happens in the world today, when technology and life gets in the way of church and the message that Christ is trying to convey?
How do you compete with extracurricular activities, text messaging, emails, overworked, and pre-occupied lives? Does it matter any more that we spend time and energy to get a message to the people, that you aren't sure they are listening to anyway?

You have an hour (and within that hour, about 20 minutes of preaching) to share God with the people and remind them what life should be like in a Christian Community. We heard a wonderful definition of preaching yesterday, "preaching allows the Risen Christ to walk among the people" (kudos to Dietrich Bonhoeffer). What a wonderful image. The challenge for today is, are the people looking for the Risen Christ or is something obstructing their view? Who removes the obstruction? Who is the one that shares the message?

Allows the Risen Christ to walk among the people - now that puts pressure on the preacher too. But is it our responsibility to be sure the people hear the message? When does the person in the pew accept responsibility to listen to what is being said? Do we need to be loud and overt? Are we confined to standing behind this piece of wood in order to get the message across? Can we move beyond the furniture?

Willimon reminded us that Jesus is a pretty hard person to work for. There are standards and expectations that we are asked to live up to. There are messages that he wants us to get across to people of the "Me" generation. He is waiting for us and we need to answer.

Many places, Funny Faces and some new treasures

Well, here is my post Christmas post. What a trip I had. I knew it was going to be a trip because nobody in Richmond had seen me since Christmas of 2006. A lot of things have changed for me since then and people got to see that while I was visiting. I would like to say that things changed for the better. Despite the fact that some people wanted to bring up the past and share what I used to be like (and forget to share what they were like) I would rather focus on the wonderful time I had and the feelings that were generated when people saw the happiness.
Of course, my brothers were at the airport bar when I arrived. I should not have expected anything else. So I went back and met them there. My nephew got up and met me and hugged me. That was a good feeling. He has grown another foot.
It was good to see the entire family at my aunt's house. We did the big Christmas gift exchange there - Yankee swap, Chinese gift swap, Dirty Santa, whatever you want to call it.
We the immediate family on Wednesday night. It normally would have been done Christmas morning, but - well, I could not get into Richmond until 1:30. You can see the picture of my brothers and me. I don't remember the last time that shot was done. Thank you to my sisters-in-law who helped to get that picture done. Then my wonderful Braxton, Brandon, and Lindsay picture.
The rest of my visit was used to see some dear friends of mine. The first was Laura and her family. You can see Lizzie and me. Apparently, this was the trip to make silly faces too. Lizzie and I posed for several photo ops. This one is our "silly" picture. I got to play the wii game with them and did a great job with the bowling and an ok job with the tennis. That is usually reversed in the real world but it was FUN.
I had lunch with friends from the Jaycees - Karen, Candy, Mike and their little boy Alex. We missed Kim but I got to see her and her family on my last day. She was quite ill and glad that she got well enough that we could visit. Anthony is Kim's son and that would be the other silly picture. This is our "what dinosaurs look like" picture at Einstein bagels. haha It was also Roddy's birthday. He was feeling a little better too. I hope the whole Hinton Court family is ok now!!
I got to see my boss from the bookstore. He is Bob. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture with him. That was some visit. I worked with him all through my time at seminary. He has seen me through some pretty rough stuff and supported me through all of it. He could not stop saying how proud he was of me and how wonderful it was to here how happy I am. That was the most wonderful feeling to hear those words from him.
Of course, there was my time with Steve. Poor guy - he was on vacation too and completely lost track of time. haha. It was good to see him. He had the same thoughts as Bob and it was good to make him proud too.
I got a surprise on Saturday. My sister-in-law took me on a surprise shopping spree to Talbot's. Here I am happy to be going to Target to get some clothing and she took me to a place where people took care of you: bringing you clothing to try on, setting up your room, etc...that was a surprise and I am grateful for what she did. Then we met my mom at Macy's and did a little more shopping. Do you know how cool it was to get clothing that fits now? and clothing that is quality?
My last night, we had a family dinner at O'Charley's. Everyone was able to get together before I had to leave the next day. It was good when we talked about the things that were going on now and the joy that a new life brings.
On Sunday, I got to spend time with Kim and her family like I said. No matter where we sat, it was good to talk with them, laugh, and enjoy the Anthony entertainment. Then I went to my home church, New Highland. What an exclamation point to the week. They had not seen me since before I left - not even pictures. So, to see them do double takes and wonder if it was me was so great. They were so proud of me. They were happy for me too.
You know, this posting sounds so selfish, but it's not meant to be. I have worked hard to be able to go home and show my family and friends that I can be who God knows I can be. To share in that happiness and accomplishment with them was so important to me. Just about everyone shared in that joy, shared how proud they were of me, and how wonderful it was to see me happy. Instead of living in the present, a couple of people had to bring up the past and remind me what my life was like before - from their perspective only. That did hurt but thankfully I have changed and most people embraced that and shared that with me. I look at these pictures and see the fun, silliness, and excitement that I did have. For those who know me, you would never have seen ME in the pictures. I tried hard to stay BEHIND the camera. Now, I want to be in front of the camera and with friends and family. I will treasure that instead of focusing on the other stuff. I will treasure what I see and feel in these memories and to experience them again before next Christmas.