A picture worth a thousand words.

Losing always hurts. Especially when your #12!

The tears of disappointment that flood when you gave everything you had~ and it wasn’t enough.

The sting of defeat that burns through a young athlete.

A necessary-evil, I suppose.

But the bitter gets sweeter when a friend comes along~

a tender heart, a compassionate soul,

one who knows the weight of this moment and without hesitation says “I’ll walk with you”.

There was something unbelievably moving as I watched this exchange (last year, 2011 season)~

and I assure you that it takes a boy of great character to give what was given to my son that day.

It was a beautiful expression of friendship that will be talked about in my home for years to come!

What a blessing I have found in the journey of growing up little boys into men!

Thin places.

You know that place?

Where the space between you and something else is so transparent, you can’t be sure where one ends and the other begins?

Last May, in the moments immediately after Dakota tore his patella tendon off his shin, I was painfully aware of being in a thin place. I can imagine he doesn’t exactly see it the same way, but I wasn’t sure who was in more pain; him or I.

The space between my children’s life and my own is almost non-existent. It is the thinnest place I know.

But for me there’s another kind of thin place:

…where the natural and the supernatural meet.

Where the space between Him and I feels unusually thin,

and an “upload/download” exchange occurs.

And it’s here, when I run…

that the thin places allow me to catch my breath~

and yet take my breath away.

 

 

 

Lesson learned: Circle the tree

One day last year I was trail running on our farm

during my favorite time of year

~the fall~

the air was crisp

and the woods were bald, having already shed

its “summer coat”.

At that time Brody was getting around easier then than he is now,

so I had taken him with me.

Brody and I have such a connection while in the woods~

we both come to life!

 

I was on a trail that I had run many times 

but this particular day

my eye caught a glimpse of this tree that I had never noticed before :

 

As I glanced at it, nothing really seemed overly unusual.

Fairly normal actually.

Standing tall and narrow; status quo as far as trees go.

I did briefly notice something around the sides but it wasn’t concerning,

rarely is a tree without blemishes after all.

So I continued up the trail to my normal turnaround point.

 

However, as I began my journey back down I was shocked to see this:

It was the same tree, just from another perspective~ the backside.

What appeared like a healthy, relatively normal tree

was hardly the picture of health I had once thought.

 

Actually, it was gross!

As I began to move around

I realized that each new angle made things look even worse.

Circling the tree

gave me a clearer picture~

and it told me something very significant about my first impression!

It was wrong. Terribly wrong.

And what I dismissed or rationalized was even worse.

 

I took it all in for a minute and then continued on my run;

when I had gotten several yards away

I glanced back over my shoulder one more time…

and almost giggled as I thought

“That’s amazing ~you don’t even notice it from here” . 

 

That moment would not be lost on me!

The experience of circling the tree that day was a Divine appointment

and one I think about often.

 

The position by which we are viewing something is extremely significant~

  different angles yield different insights.

If we only allow ourselves a narrow perspective we can be sure of this:

some truths will be seen~

others will be obscured!

Lesson learned.

Always. Circle. The. Tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piper

Several months ago I had an unfortunate experience on a trail. I had a face to face encounter with a rattle snake that shook me up. A lot. Looking back I probably should have gone back out the very next day in order to keep it from getting all crazy in my head. But I didn’t. So for 2 months I didn’t step foot on a trail out of fear; I had been attacked by lions, tigers and bears after all!

Since I don’t have a schedule that is conducive to evening trail groups and long term running boyfriends are not in the forecast, I decided I would stick with what has always worked in the past~ a running dog. And probably I like them better than groups or boyfriends anyways! However this would mean I’d have 2 large dogs inside my house. Brody is 14 years old but still every bit of 100 lbs! I debated over the added responsibility (I’m lacking in those you know *grin*) and the headaches that sometimes come with animals. Don’t get me wrong, I love my dogs and have always had them~ but my dogs are part of “my people” and 7 in this house is no joke. Nevertheless, the decision was made.

 

Meet Piper…

 

She’s part lab, part something else. Obviously, duh. We just don’t know what that something else is because she’s a rescue. And the line “who rescued who” fits our story~that’s for another day!

Yet the once homeless Piper has now molded into our family so well, I hardly remember us without her.

I mean seriously? How can you not love those crystal green eyes? I can’t imagine why someone would have abandoned this girl.

 

Of course Piper has a job to do; remember those lions, tigers and bears waiting for me in the woods?

Well, she’s getting ready and I think she will be amazing:

 

(Every girl needs a sweet pair of trail shoes you know!!)

One thing about Piper, ok more like a million things about Piper…she loves when I have sore legs. I think she secretly prays for lactic acid build up because it means the blue roller thingy comes out. Don’t believe the calm dog in this first picture, she just wanted to make a liar out of me. Piper is all about some foam rolling! Her idea of rolling out sore legs ends up feeling like a cardio workout.

(Yes, I know my attractive compression socks are an amazing complement to my outfit. Awesome for dating I think, which could be part of my forecasting issue! ha)

 

And if your wondering about Brody, he tolerates Piper most days~ however he much prefers Piper to sleep in her own bed.

Any guesses as to who usually wins?….

 

…It pays to be persistent!