Daylight Savings

For some CRAZY reason, I have gotten up early almost every day this week. That means that I am getting up in the 5 o'clock hour as far as my body is concerned. 5 o'clock! That is SO EARLY. But I will tell you a little secret: I love it. I recently started a Wellness Challenge with a friend in the ward and some ladies who are, I believe in Arizona. There are several things on the list of  "must do" for the challenge that I couldn't fit into my regular day. So, I decided that I needed to maximize my mornings. Sleep tries to convince me that it is not a good idea to get up earlier - but I love it, I really do. I get up, do some reading, eat breakfast not in my car, go for a walk, or do something else a little active. I don't know how I keep forgetting, but I really do love mornings.

I find that one of the things that I love about getting up early is that the world is still in the morning. It is the one time of the day where I don't feel like I have to fight my way out of expectations and noise to find a moment of peace.

Walk days are awesome. We live nestled in the middle of the ghetto, but if we walk just a few short blocks, we enter the Palo Alto Baylands Preserve. My good friend who just lives around the corner shows up at my door at 6:55 and we power walk through the most lovely little place while talking about the deep things of the world. I don't know if there could be a better way to start the day. This is a picture from my walk on Monday. Because we were out there a daylight-savings-time-hour earlier, we got to see the sunrise. What a wonderful world we live in!

. I am also loving the extra hour of daylight in the evening. Life just seems easier when there is a little extra sunshine in it. I am always amazed at how much better I feel about EVERYTHING whenever spring rolls around. I am excited to be able to come home from work and enjoy beautiful evenings outside. If I were still at home in Utah, I would sigh and wish that the weather would always stay this way - in California, I pretty much get my wish. Wow. 

New Beginnings

I have been away for a while. Sometimes transition can be overwhelming.  

Since I have made this move to California, with all of it's seemingly endless crazy adventures, I am learning so much about who I am, what I am capable, where my value lies, and where my life is headed. And it has more or less exhausted me entirely. I would like to start blogging again, but not necessarily because things are now rosy and fine. My life is incredibly wonderful, and truly blessed, but it has been, and continues to be, a daily challenge. I hope that it is alright if I use this space as a place for healing, encouragement, inspiration, and sharing. 

I started this blog as a running blog. However, over the past couple of months I haven't been exercising, letting alone running with any kind of regularity or consistency. There didn't seem to be anything to write about. However, as things have been difficult I often find myself reflecting on the experiences I had training for or running 4 half marathons last year. Running brings me peace and clarity. Running not only helps me to develop a strong and healthy body, but it fosters an appreciation for the gift that this body is and for all that it can do, even when I have let it sit idle for much too long. 

SeRUNity is just one kind of peace that I am currently working to invite more of into my life. As I continue to blog I hope to be more honest and more diligent. I hope that by sharing the good and the bad, I will be more aware of the goodness in my life, and that by sharing, I will realize that I am not alone in this - that none of us are. 

So, there it is. If you are one of the few who has been reading my blog, plan to see a lot of advice popping up here on how to be more compassionate with yourself, how to start over when you have gotten off track (with food, exercise, life in general), how to invite positive feeling and banish negative thoughts from your life, and hopefully, how to be grateful for the whole crazy process. I think that gratitude is remarkably healing and I am pretty sure I will have a lot to say about that in the future. 

For now, I would like to end this post by sharing a poem and a beautiful painting that have been inspiring to me today:    

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me;

I cannot choose the colors

He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow

And I in foolish pride,

Forget that He seeth the upper,

And I the under side.

Not till the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas

And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the Weaver’s skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

She Will Find That Which Is Lost - Brian Kershiznik