What do I have that I can claim is mine? What do I have that You have not first given me? What by my own effort can I maintain? What power do I have to keep even a single breath in my lungs? What power do I have to guarantee even my own life for one moment more? Do I pretend to know the moment of my death? How much more am I powerless to try and guarantee even more? Therefore, let me do away with false pretenses. Let me cast aside the notion that by holding on with tight fist, I can add even a moment more to the span of time these gifts are in my presence. Let me live consistently with the truth of my own powerlessness. Let me live with these gifts sitting on my open hand. Let me be thankful for the time they are
Our lives are often driven by inertia – the force that keeps something moving in the same direction it has been. Sometimes this is for better, but often it is for the worst. This force makes it hard for us to change directions, even if our underlying values or priorities change and the direction our life is heading no longer makes a lot of sense. I’ve found that taking a sabbatical has been a huge inertia killer. In the best ways. Sometimes also in the hardest ways. The Effort To Change Change always requires work. There are times we keep heading in the same direction not because that is right, but because the effort required to do something different seems overwhelming. If the work required to change course is more than the work required to keep going the same direction, that makes a bit of sense. For a lot of
On April 16, 2018 I ran the Boston Marathon, finishing in 2nd to last place overall with a time of 8:09:48 (its a long story…). Here is the race report. Synopsis It isn’t every day you get to be one of the last people to cross the finish line of one of the most famous marathons in the world. After logging 20 miles at 6:30 pace, trying my best to fight through horrible weather that I was not dressed for, my body began to shut down. At mile 23 and I dropped out of the race to get treatment for symptoms of hypothermia. 5 hours later, once safe and warm, I decided that I needed to finish. I put on some warm clothes and went back to where I had dropped out to finish the last miles of the race. Goals Finish – ACCOMPLISHED (I list this as a goal in every