Love and Thankfulness

There are two ways that love helps me, now and then, to see real people through the filter of my insecurities.
One of them is a growing power to love myself enough to be thankful for what I am, and to forgive myself for what I am not!  I feel this power intermittently, I admit, but I feel it enough to get my eyes off my anxieties about myself and get a focus on what is going on with other people.

Love also helps me to get outside of myself long enough to discover that the people whose favor I need so much are as weak and needy as I am.   They are trusting me to care about them while I am struggling to see them through the haze of my own anxieties.  If I discern them in their needs, I am getting the imagination to catch a moment of grace when it comes.  :)

This is a quote from Marianne Williamson's book - Return to Love.

It has taken me a lot of years to try to focus more on the other person and quit thinking of myself so much.  I believe that this is human nature(to think of ourselves more than the other person),but I do notice that people really like to be around you when you actually listen closely to what they are saying and show that you care. 
 It is easy to not listen very well.  I am trying hard to give full attention to the person I am with and not think of my little world so much.
It's always a work in progress.....

I am always reminded of how blessed I am.
All I have to do is turn on the TV and see on the news what so many other people in the world are dealing with. Right now they are focusing a lot on the big Typhoon that hit in the Phillipines. Thousands are dead and Thousands more are wounded and displaced. 
The scenes of graphic destruction are everywhere.It is so sad and depressing to see.
Yet we have people close to home that have many hardships, too.
Yesterday I took a Gal and her son to the Dr. and to run some errands.  She and  her family are homeless right now. They don't have a car and a job either.  Jay (my husband, the Bishop) is trying to help them get back on their feet. It is sad to see how hard it is on them and their family.  But I'm finding that we can only do so much to help......then we have to let go and pray that their lives can get better. It does make you sooooo Thankful for your own life and all the luxuries that you have. (i.e:  a warm home, a car, a job,running water, food, clothes, etc.)
I hope and pray that I will always keep a grateful heart.  
Gratitude and Love - that's what it's all about.


  

Trying to remember....

I'm trying to remember the 1/2 maras that I've done in the past. So I will put it down here - so I can
refer back to it.
The first 1/2 marathon  I did was in Verona, Oregon.
The second one was in Hartford, Conn.(did with son, Rocky)
The third one was in Sunriver, Oregon
The fourth one was outside of Pocatello, Idaho. (did with daughter, Staci)
The fifth one was around the Lake of Chelan, WA. (parents came with)
The sixth 1/2 mara was in Carlsbad, California. (did with Rocky again)
The seventh one was the Rock-n-roll 1/2 Mara of Seattle, WA.
The eighth one was in Wenatchee, Washington.
The ninth one was in Miami, Florida. (did with Rocky Jay)
The 10th one was in Wenatchee, WA again.
The 11th one was in Eden, Utah, (did with Staci)
The 12th one was in Huntsville, Utah. (did with Staci again....:)

The only whole Marathon I did was in Salmon Idaho with my daughter Staci.
  I came in an hour or more later than her, of course.....:)
But hey!  I did it.

Now I have a record of the races of done.  So that I can remember when I'm old and gray
and can't remember any more.  Ha haha.....I guess I shouldn't laugh.....that might not be too
far away from now.  I had a time remembering the order of these now.
I will still try and do at least one 1/2 mara a year.  And I always do the Ephrata Canal Caper in March. (10K)   But now I think I will be lucky to do that much a year.
I do spend a lot more time just walking the River or around the Farm, when I can.