Remind Me

Once upon a time, I had the mental and physical discipline to push through heat, humidity, tiredness, moderate pain, and that uncomfortable feeling that arises the moment you cross the threshold from working out, playing, and running recreationally to doing so competitively.  I have distinct memories of waking up before the sun was up to hit a bucket of serves or to run sprints up the big hill in my neighborhood.  When I was 12 or 13, I came across the quote,  "A champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching."  That statement resonated with me and pushed me through hundreds of practices, trainings, and matches.  I wanted to be a champion.

Fast-forward 11 years, and I am now teaching 12 year old children how to do math.  I was trained on the techniques in a book called Teach Like a Champion, (how fitting!), but I still miss the drive towards elite physical fitness of my younger years.  When I go out for a run now, I just jog leisurely for however long I please.  This style of running has suited me well for the past 2-3 years because it has kept me in shape, allowed me to do a handful of half-marathons, and taught me to enjoy the sport.  (Running used to be punishment, so I used to hate it!)  I know I'll never place in a race, and I don't need to be able to run 5-minute (or 6-minute, or 7-minute) miles.  So, recreational running is fine for me.  But, I do need  to have (yearn for?) the discipline to push hard to make a 30-minute run turn into a 90-minute run, or to up the pace when the occasion calls for it, or to simply get out there on a particularly hot, humid day.  Lately, that discipline has been absent from within: I have just run, or jogged or walked, until I felt like stopping, and when I have tried to push myself, something inside just says, "Nah..." and I mosey on home.

There are the rare days that I go to a field to run sprints just because I can, or perhaps because I am trying to resurrect that mental and physical discipline to push past the side cramps, heat, slow pace, frustration, confusion, stress, and fear.  Those days are the best running days.  It is on these days few and far between that when I feel 'like a champion' again.  It is liberation birthed of discipline that follows exhaustion.

I want to run this hard again. 
Remind me.

Get Up and Walk

"I have got no one to blame
Except if that someone's me
I washed my hands, but just the same
My eyes confess for me
I come in filthy rags
You know I'm guilty

I wake up almost every night
Saying Your name
What I would give to walk in the light
But what I hide has made me lame
My face down on the ground
I wait to hear the healing sound

You break through my deafness
Swing open the curtain
And I find the courage to get up and walk
I forget my weakness
For You've answered my loneliness
And through the mud on my eyes
I can see my Hope has come

You'll have to show me where to go
It's been so long since I've used my feet
I got up today a cripple
And now I'm dancing
So let the power of Your move
Not stop with what I can see

I couldn't walk
I couldn't sing
I couldn't love until You found me"


- Bethany Dillon, "Get Up and Walk"

They taste like squares.

As a follow up to this post just beneath this one about the family next door -

I went to play tennis with three of the kiddos this morning.  We went to the neighborhood park at the local elementary school across the block from our street.  I think all four of us had such a great time playing around, running around, joking around, and getting super HOT at 11:00am and 97 degrees.  I taught them how to properly hold the racket, how to entertain themselves for hours against the hitting wall, and how to play mini tennis using the cracks in the side walk as boundaries.  Later, I watched them as they slid down the railings along the steps with 'No hands! Woohoo!' and raced them in a couple relay races.  We also talked about our favorite foods and favorite sports.  The twins like soccer best, and Nande likes field hockey.  (One of my roommates who lived here last year, too, played field hockey for Princeton and I think she has had a great influence on them.)  Mwari's favorite food is ice cream; Ngola's favorite food is pizza; Nande likes quesadillas, but Mwari thinks, "Ew. They taste like squares."

(What do squares taste like?)

-

• The elementary school is closed because there was a fire five years ago.  The rust and decay still abound.
• There are puddles of glass from broken bottles everywhere. (My mama instinct was very over-protective of the kids in their sandals and crocs playing and running in/around the glass. They said, "Mama Kelley, we are fine. We know how to play.")  
• I saw a couple dime bags on the field that we raced on. 
• Here's the neat thing about all this: the kids are still kids, and they're outside playing.  On most of these hot summer days, most kids would be inside playing their Wii. These kids play video games, too, but they are happy to entertain themselves for hours at a time hitting a ball against a wall and chasing each other around a field, even if it does have glass.  They are happy kids. 

Next Door

There is a Rastafarian family of 8, six children all under the age of 12.  I am PUMPED to get to know them and serve them and love them and learn from them this year.


The 7 year old girl, Nande, plays tennis. Yes!


I met the father, 7 y/o daughter, and 4 y/o son today. Nande wrote the names of all the kids on our steps leading up to the front porch.


2011-2012 in 5112, "let's dance."

One Thing

"When we no longer seek God for His blessings, we have time to seek Him for Himself."
- Oswald Chambers,  The Moral Foundations of Life, 728 L


Today, I want to seek God so that I can be with God.  I want to know Him more - His character, His heart, and His desires. I want my prayers to match the intercessory prayers of Jesus, and to be burdened for the things that He is burdened for.  Today, I seek 'one thing.' 


Psalm 27:4
"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple."