When time ticks by

When life’s on hold but time keeps ticking it’s hard to see progress.

It’s challenging to feel successful.

It’s difficult to remain resilient.

You look into your future but you can’t hold what’s there.

It’s troublesome when you’re empty handed.

It’s like life is at a standstill even though the clock keeps changing.

You find comfort in the hours passing by even when you spend time wasting the hours that make up your day.

Because an hour in the past means you’re an hour closer to your future.

And when the hours add up to days, and days up to weeks, and weeks add up to months, eventually your future will be within grasp.

You can start a new chapter in life.

You can pursue what you aspire to pursue.

You can breathe the fresh air of your future and forget about the days that passed by.

And hopefully that fresh air will be cleansing, will be all-fulfilling, will be just what you need to feel happy, to feel content, to feel empowered and audacious.

But until that air breezes by, you must continue to breathe in what’s there – every hour, day, week, and month leading up to something fresh.

When time ticks by and life is standing still, all you can do is breathe.

 

Tough runs…

They say that tough runs make runners stronger.

They say that in order to have good runs, you must have some bad runs.

They say that you just have to push through the tough runs to get better, stronger, faster.

But tough runs suck.

They can leave you mentally defeated.

They often leave you physically strained.

Your mind tells you that you need to push through the tough runs because it will only make you better.

Your body tells you to stop, walk, quit, give-up, whatever it needs to do to be at rest.

Yes, tough runs will make you stronger.

Yes, not every run will be a good run.

No, it is not okay to give up and throw in the towel.

Even in life (the non-running related life some of us choose to live occasionally), things get tough.

We face decisions everyday that either make us or break us.

We face bumps in the road and turns in our path.

Our plans may go awry so we make compromises and learn to go with the flow.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

We can try to plan our lives to fit our ideal vision.

We can try to plan our running schedule to reach a certain finishing time.

But some days, you just have to go with the flow.

Listen to your body, listen to your mind.

Cutting a planned 8 mile run short to 6.5 miles instead when your race is 2 months away is not going to keep you from your goal.

Don’t get down on yourself when you hit a bump in the road.

Trust that things work out.

Learn from the tough times.

Learn how to become a better person.

Learn from your mistakes,

and don’t look back.

I leave today with two thoughts:

1. When the going gets tough, get tougher.
2. Tough times don’t last but tough people do.

 

We all fight our own battles

No matter how strong we may seem,
no matter how smart we may act,
no matter how much or how little money lies in our wallet,
no matter how healthy our bodies may look,
we all fight our own battles.
Physical, mental, emotional battles plague us all.
We can take care of ourselves extensively, but our bodies are not invincible.
We can go to school, read daily, or engage in mind games but our minds are an entangled mess of obstacles, barriers, and forgotten memories.
We can interact with others or chose to think alone, but our emotions will forever linger in our hearts.
We can have a good paying job with copious job stability but the stressors may outweigh the financial rewards.
No matter our age we all fight our own battles.
Youth battles and aged battles.
Inside battles and outside battles.
Battles alone and battles with others.
Battles between our hearts and our minds.
Battles with time.
Battles with recurring events.
Battles you only want to face once.
We all have them.
We all fight against them.
Learn from them but don’t let them change who you are.
Be greater than your battles.

A four letter word called fear

Every second, every minute, every hour, every day our world is changing.

Jubilation and uneasiness refutes in our minds.

Excitement and fear deliberates within our hearts.

What’s next?

What’s changing?

How will life tomorrow be different from life today?

Is it okay to be afraid?

Ponder wisely.

For your thoughts resonate in your actions

and your apprehension becomes visible through your eyes.

Hold tight to what you love,

but don’t be afraid to take risks.

A chance forgotten is a chance dissipated.

Trepidation is reality,

taking a chance is living.

 

 

The Great Outdoors

The whisp of the fresh, clean breeze,

the scent of wood burning in the firepit,

and the cool morning air encompassing the sunshine peeking from behind clouds.

Surrounding a picnic table sits a group of people sharing a morning in the great outdoors.

The birds chirp in a natural morning-alarm tune

and the squirrels fly from branch to branch

while the nocturnal animals return to their slumber.

We sit temporarily disconnected from the world,

calmly,

in serenity,

and in gratefulness for all of God’s creations.

Time slows down in the wilderness.

Our greatest stressors are overshadowed by the forrest of trees.

The blue sky envelopes the great big world beyond the forrest of wildlife.

We forget,

for just an instant,

that life can be complicated and unfair at times.

Because we then remember that God has a plan for each of us.

Just as God created the trees, the sunshine and the animals that reside in the thickness of the great outdoors,

God created a plan for every living being on this beautiful planet.

The great outdoors frees us from our fears and worries.

Our fears and worries seem minute compared to the expanse of the wilderness.

And for that reason, I could endlessly continue to feel the whisp of the fresh clean air,

and smell the campfire,

and watch the sun peek behind the clouds and shine light on all of the world;

this is when life feels most whole.

Life.

The day you accept change is the day you allow yourself to live.

Change is inevitable:

we all age,

we all find new places to stay,

we all learn new things,

we live, we learn, we grow.

Change can either break you or build you – the choice is yours.

When we deny that change is occurring, we are just holding ourselves back from living in the now.

We must try to see that God has a plan for each and every one of us.

He wants us to discover new things.

He wants us to take a leap of faith.

He wants us to travel, venture out, and meet new people.

He has a plan.

Every day I believe more and more in fate.

The people in my life now are meant to be a part of my life.

The things I have the opportunity to do are given to me as a gift from God.

Everything really does happen for a reason, right?

We might not understand it now.

We might not even see it now.

But we can live now.

We can grasp every moment and hold onto it tight.

We must always remember that the people in our life in this given moment are meant to help us, guide us, and be our friends.

We must love these people and cherish our shared times.

Change may be occurring but have no fear;

God will be there every step of the way.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Everything will be ok.

This is the life gifted to us to learn, to grow, to live.

A change in life is God’s way of saying, “I want you to live”.