Satisfied With Good Things

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Coco

Psalm 103 is a standard part of the Ash Wednesday service in the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer. The whole Psalm is very powerful, but when we said the Psalm on Wednesday, I was struck most by the first section :

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Isn’t it wonderful that on a day that we mark the start of a season of self-denial, we are reminded the God satisfies our desires with good things?

This is one of those passages that begs to be applied to diet issues–who needs junk food when God has promised to satisfy our desires with good things?

 

But this week, the Psalm made me think of this prayer “for young persons” (also from the Book of Common Prayer):

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world:
Show them that your ways give more life
than the ways of the world,
and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth,
but as a chance for a new start.
Give them strength to hold their faith in you,
and to keep alive their joy in your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I’ve turned to this prayer recently, as I realize that my son will be heading off to college soon–where I won’t be able to balance his time with friends with time with family and where I won’t be there we went he gets home at night to make sure he is safe (and sober!).

For him, and for his friends, I pray that he sees that God’s ways “give more life than the ways of the world,” and that God will satisfy him “with good things.”

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One way that I am observing Lent is by renewing my committment to listen to the podcasts of the Daily Prayer service from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer by David Guthrie. The podcasts are available for free here and last about 15 minutes.

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Are you satisfied with good things?

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Training Log: Rock’n’Roll USA Half Marathon (Week 7)

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Coco

Wow. Week 7. Only three more weeks until the Rock’n’Roll USA Half Marathon! Now that my ITB/glute/piriformis is mostly behaving, it’s time to do longer long runs to prepare to run 13.1 miles.

Monday (9 mile easy run)
Walking: 1 mile (morning dog walk)
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)
Running: Easy 9 miles run with my friend
Our pace averaged about 9:50 min/mile. Our split times for the “out” segment were in the 10-ish min/mile range, while those on the way back were in the 9:40 range. I definitely felt like I was holding back so she could keep up, but my ITB/glute/piriformis definitely preferred the easier pace.

Tuesday (TM Intervals)
Running:
   Warm-up: 5 min walking, 10 min running 
   Hill Intervals: 2/1 intervals at 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 incline for 15 minutes
   Speed Intervals: 2/1 intervals at 6.7, 6.9 or 7.0 mph for 15 minutes
   Cool-down: 2 min running, 3 min walking

Wednesday
Elliptical: 10 min warm-up
Weights: 45 min full-body routine
I added straight leg lifts to work on strengthening my hips and swapped out some crunches for some planks.
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Thursday (Easy Run)
Running: easy 4.3 mile run with Tiger Lilly (avg 10-ish pace)
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Friday
Walking: 1 mile (morning dog walk)
Weights: 45 min full-body routine
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Saturday (Long Run on Bike Path)
Walking: 1 mile (morning dog walk)
Running: 10 mile run on the bike path
I set my alarm for 5:00 so I could take Tiger Lilly for a walk before I headed to the bike path for a run. I managed to get on the road by 6:00 and started running by 6:30. My Weather Channel App said it was 38F with a wind chill of 30F, but it didn’t seem that bad. After my first out-and-back segment I stopped at my car to ditch my jacket and gloves, but I kept my hat. My legs felt pretty good–a bit of tightness but I didn’t feel like it was affecting my pace. There were lots of runners out–I wonder how many are doing the RnR with me?

Garmin Data: Total Distance: 10.16 mi, Total Time: 1:36: 58, Avg. Pace: 9:33 min/mi
Split Times: 10:00, 9:41, 9:40, 9:28, 9:29, 9:22, 9:39, 9:32, 9:14, 9:26

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Lessons From The Mat

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Coco

My son is wrapping up his last year of wrestling today, making his second and final appearance in the “national” championship tournament for his league. Over the years, I have gone from barely being able to watch his matches to being an ardent fan with great respect for the sport.

wrestlers

 

The first year my son wrestled, I wasn’t into it at all. I didn’t really enjoy watching the boys, and felt so barbaric cheering them on. As the season wore on, I understood the sport more, could follow the scoring, and figured out why you need to “lift his head!” when you have your competitor on his back (to force the shoulders on the ground to earn a pin). Still, when the season was over, I looked forward to cheering on the lacrosse team instead.

It took his second year for me to start to enjoy the matches. Well, I still don’t like it when the boys seem to bend their necks more than they should be able to go, or when arms and shoulders get twisted back too far, but for the most part, they wrestle “clean” without hurting each other.

 

What I have really come to appreciate is how demanding wrestling is as a sport. Sure, a round may only last for 2 minutes, but you try keeping your shoulders off the ground for even 30 seconds using only your core strength while someone your weight is on top of you using all of his weight to try to push you down. There is also strategy in figuring out how to flip your opponent over without losing control and getting flipped yourself. I see it in the boys’ faces as they try a move, reconsider, reset, and try again.

Wrestling offers so many lessons:

  • It ain’t over until it’s over. You can be way ahead in points, but if you get careless, or tired, or the other guy gets lucky, you can find yourself on your back with the referee checking your shoulder blades for a pin. The good news is that this holds true when you are behind. There is always a chance that you can pin your opponent and win as long as you stay in the match and keep trying.
  • Every second counts. A match can change direction so quickly. The wrestler who initiates a take-down may quickly find himself flat on the mat. The wrestler on the bottom may be able to flip around if his opponent is too high up on his back. Even if you are on your back, if you can keep a shoulder blade off the mat until the clock runs out, you may be able to escape a pin. Sometimes it seems that sheer determination earns the win. 
  • The number on the scale doesn’t tell you everything. Each weight class is separated by 5-17 pounds (at the higher weights) and most boys try to be at or near the high end of their weight class. That means that boys in the same weight class should weigh about the same, but they often look very different. There are boys with tall and lanky builds, boys with short and stocky builds, and every build in between. It’s not clear that either build necessarily has an advantage. More often it is skill (and maybe a bit of luck) that determines the winner–I’ve seen boys with different builds dominate their matches.
  • You need to work with what you have. If you are tall and lanky, you need to use that height (and leverage) to your advantage. If you are short and stocky, you need to make that strength and stability work for you. No matter what your size, you can hone your skills and agility so you will be able to respond to your opponent’s strengths.

Another thing I really enjoyed about following my son’s wrestling team was the team “family.” Parents make an effort to come to the matches and everyone cheers on each wrestler. It is fun to watch the boys grow and mature as the season goes on, and it is great to get to know the other parents as we pass the time between matches during the day-long tournaments.

It is also nice to see the boys come together as a team. While wrestling is a very individual sport, the boys seem to support each other in a way that we don’t see with other sports. It is so heart-warming to see these “tough guys” giving each other pep-talks, coaching each other through tough matches, helping each other shake off rough losses, and coming together to celebrate hard-earned victories.

Four years ago I never would have thought that I’d be sad to see my last wrestling tournament, but now wrestling is the first “last” that I am getting sentimental about as my son finishes his senior year of high school.

Did you play a sport in high school?

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Check Your Pulse? There’s An App For That!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Coco

My husband is the only member of my family that does not have an iPhone, and he gets tired of all the iPhone hype, but even he was impressed by this new app:

Instant Heart Rate by Azumio

I read about it in the February issue of O[prah] magazine, and downloaded it on the spot. It uses the iPhone camera to detect the pulse in your fingertip–you just hold your index finger over the lens for 10 seconds to get an instant read. You can store your data, check your pulse against different targets, and even share your data on Facebook and Twitter. All for only 99 cents!

I don’t know how accurate it is, but it measured by resting pulse at 61 bpm, which sounds about right.

I always say that watching my son wrestle makes my heart race, and I remembered to check my pulse at his first match of last week’s tournament–it was 131 bpm! And that was after I fumbled with my phone–it probably was even higher before that distraction.

Have you discovered any fun new apps lately?

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~Ash Wednesday~

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Coco

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, a 40-day period of repentence and reflection that many Christians observe before Easter.

(source)

Although Ash Wednesday is a solemn holy day in the church calendar, it is not all doom and gloom. In fact, I really love the liturgy of the Ash Wednesday service in the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer. The opening prayer gets me right away:

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have created and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.

I think being reminded of God’s forgiveness before we confess our sins reinforces God’s unconditional love for us.

On of the readings usually is Psalm 103, which includes these verses:

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy,
slow to anger and full of great kindness.

He will not always accuse us,
nor will he keep his anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our sins from us.

To me, this Psalm is a reminder that God sees us apart from our shortcomings and wrong-doings. While we tend to define ourselves by our worst traits, God loves our whole selves.

After the Bible readings, the service continues with an invitation to observe a holy Lent, which begins:

Dear People of God . . .

I just love that phrase–maybe because it connotes a sense of belonging to God.

With the imposition of ashes the priest reminds us:

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

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While this may strike some as a macabre part of the service, I see it as a needed reminder of my place in God’s creation. So often I get caught up in myself and my own abilities–I think I can do anything, that I have to do everything–that I forget to place my faith and trust in God. It also is a good reminder that our days on this earth are numbered and so we should spend them wisely.

I still haven’t decide how I am going to observe a holy Lent–what practices of “self-examination and repentance,” “prayer, fasting and self-denial,” and “reading and meditating on God’s holy word” I will focus on for the next 40 days, but at least I have started Lent with a sincere and contrite heart.

Are you giving up anything or committing to do anything for Lent?

If you got ashes today, has anyone told you that you have a smudge on your forehead?

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