Friends in High Places

I want to take a minute this morning to introduce you all to direct you to the blogs of two of my dear friends Gil Gonzalez and Lee Sullivan.  They are just returning from the heaven that is better known as "The Rock Boat", the original floating music festival put on by the one and only, Sixthman.

While I've never had the good fortune of attending The Rock Boat, I've had the good fortune of attending several "sister events" and love living vicariously each year as my friends return sharing their stories of fun, sun, music and mayhem. This year is no different and I know that while I should be doing something productive, much of the next few days will be spent filing through scores of pictures and watching new TRB youtube videos.

Gil and Lee are both participating in a 30 day writing challenge, so upon their return from the cruise last night, they both blogged about it and I couldn't be happier to know that they both found God on a cruise that has been deemed "Spring Break for Grown Adults".  I have no doubt he was rocking his face off to NEEDTOBREATHE.

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Comments

Happy Saturday morning to you all!

I'm hearing from several of you that you haven't been able to leave comments.  As I'm one who does appreciate a little gratification from time to time, I really hate to be missing them!  I have all the settings in place for anyone to leave a message at any time, and I've double and even triple checked to make sure that all comments are enabled so if you could help me figure out the problem, I'd be indebted! 

As you attempt to leave a comment, make sure you choose an identity (even if it's anonymous) after typing your post.  Then click on "Publish Your Comment".  If you've followed those steps and are getting an error message please let me know (lpgoodall@gmail.com) what it is and I'll continue the hunt for the root of the problem!

I hope it's a really great weekend for you all, whether your on the beach or bundled up in the warmth of a cozy fire! 

Mid Week Check In

I started the week, feeling behind in most aspects of my life. On day 3 of the New Year, I wrote about feeling like I was already slacking on my goals and afraid of not making any head way. As prayed for, God answered my prayers, helping me to pull my head out of my funk and get back into a far more productive and creative mindset.


After writing and posting the blog Monday morning, I did get out for a run, albeit, not a good one. All that mattered though was simply that I had gotten out of the house and that my feet were hitting the pavement. Distance, time, breathing patterns were all irrelevant as I simply strode towards the goal of getting in 4 runs this week.


By the end of the day, not only had I met that goal, but also knocked out the goal of having 3 blog posts ready to go for the week, in the event that I didn’t get a chance to sit down and write any more. Additionally, I helped Jeff get a major editing project done for his blog, tackled some chores and called it a day, feeling like I’d dug myself out of the hole.


Starting the week off with a quite, yet productive Monday certainly helped. Tuesday was a blur, being back at work for the first time in two weeks, followed by dinner with my girl friends, and the random emotional punch to the gut.  Even with all that I did begin to make some strides in figuring out my Word Press page and what I want that to look and feel like. I closed out the day, with a Just Give Me Jesus, and knew that it was all going to work out just fine.


Yesterday, I made even more headway in figuring out what wordpress theme I want to use (standard) and did more research on how to make this blogging outlet something relevant and substantial for those of you who are bothering to read it. Again, I saw the benefits of starting the day early, with a four mile run, as I was focused and intentional with how I spent my time throughout the day.  Progress, even in baby steps, is all that matters at this point.


Despite the runny nose, post nasal drip, headache, stuffy head feeling that I have going on, I really do feel like I’ve had a productive week. I feel like I’m getting somewhere, accomplishing something, working hard to pursue a goal, several in fact. Again, I don’t know where this is going, but I hope you’ll stick around and watch as God reveals his divine plan as I believe it will be good. Very good!

Love Drop

Love Drop is a micro-giving network of people who unite as a community to help one person or family a month. By subscribing to the team for as low as $1, they make it easy for their members to change lives in a fun and tangible way. Each month Love Drop delivers a unique combination of unexpected financial gifts, personal encouragement and the support of local and online communities.

Every month the Love Drop community comes together to raise as much support and awareness as we possibly can. It starts on the website - LoveDrop.us, gets spread across our entire network of blogs, continues through the forums where all our members are brainstorming, and finally lands on the front steps of our recipients. Literally.

At the end of every month, Nate and J$ show up in the town the people live in to deliver this pile of goodness. The money, the gifts, the services, everything! It's all on film, and it all ends with an amazing outpouring of love. And then it starts all over again the next month. Help them, and their flagship partner, Kona Grill, make this drop in Chicago amazing!

As you can see from Jill’s video above, there are SO MANY people out there that need our help NOW. Right NOW!. Every day people like you and me who are going through some tough times right now. It’s Love Drop's mission to change the lives of 12 of these families for the next entire year.

Early Riser

Waking up early has become a new source of balance and peace for me.  While I haven’t fully incorporated early mornings in to my routine, I have recently come to recognize their value.  Training for the marathon started the whole thing, but then I found on a couple of mornings when the others bailed, that I was able to get some really good writing done before the sun came up.

In Knit Together, Debbie Macomber, says that she starts every day at 4:30 in the morning with a devotional time and then time for journaling and praying.  When I read this, I was astounded.  Every day?  4:30? How in the world does someone start their day like this?  Of course, I know others who do it, but it sounded completely ridiculous to me.  I should have known then that God was calling me to do this ridiculous thing.

It’s awesome to get the run for the day out of the way bright and early after you’re fully rested, but I’ve found it an even better time for reading, reflecting and writing.  (honestly, I can’t believe I’m saying this right now) Without work, phone calls, text messages and other crap floating around in your brain, it really creates a powerful start to the day. When I did this, I found that I was far more intentional with how I spent my time throughout the day, accomplishing stuff that I needed to get done rather than just passing the time. 

It helped me to feel centered and in touch with God in a way that I’ve never regularly felt before.  Just a few moments, dedicated to him, at the beginning of my day was such a break from my normal toes meet floor meet toothbrush meet shower routine that had me on the run from the second my eyes opened over day that I fell in love with it.

My day to day routines have changed though since I fell in love with it, and I’m not doing a great job at it but I hope to as the year progresses and my life settles down a little bit.  For those of you who haven’t tried it though, I would encourage you to set your clock an hour early one day a week.  Get up,  read some sort of motivational/inspired reading, reflect a little bit on it, make a few notes and then take a few moments to think about what you need to accomplish that day.  

p.s. As I post this, I just came in from an early morning and truly feel like I just gave myself a gift.  It's weird but I hope you find the same thing when you give it a shot!

Bring it on 2011

My dear friends Gil, and Lee are completing a 30 day writing challenge. While I’m not up to the 30 day challenge this month, I am going to borrow a few of their topics from time to time. If you’re at all interested in blogging or just journaling for yourself, I highly recommend taking a look at this link and you’ll find a great starting place for topics on which to begin your writing.

As I write this we are 3 days into the New Year and while I’ve tried to take some time over the last few days to reflect on 2010 and gear up for 2011, today has really been the first time I’ve had the time to sit and ponder. I want to share a few things I’m excited about in 2011 and note some highlights from 2010

2010 Highlights:

• Learning what a real relationship should look and feel like.
• Being sicker than I’ve ever been in my life, and alone for most of it, just after a hard break up, and surviving it.
• While in a yoga class, heeding the call to “just write the damn book” and going home and starting to write.
• Getting serious about running and finding a super great group of girls to run and train with. Huge blessing!
• Buying my first car. Yep, I’m 33 years old and have never signed on the dotted line. It was the bolded, underlined and italicized item on my divorce bucket list so crossing it off was a huge weight off my shoulders. Turns out it was no big deal at all.
• My first trip to the Florida Keys. Again, another stupid little item, but it had pissed me off for far too long to live this close and having never gone that I put it on the bucket list and . . . sure enough I crossed it off. . . had a great time doing it too.
• I watched someone I’ve loved and prayed for to screw their head on straight pull their head out of their ass and let God take the reins. Truly cool. Prayer works. Try it.
• Road tripped with my sister. While unfortunate circumstances made this happen, 1700 mile trip for our grandmother’s funeral was a cherished time for me.
• My Dad bought a condo in Vero, which may be his ultimate expression of love and devotion to me. The fact that he loves me enough to want to buy a place here (albeit the view doesn’t suck), made me feel like a treasure.
• Earlier in the year, I had to let a love go. I set it free and it came back. Better than ever expected! Version 2.0 is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Yay God!

What I’m looking forward to in 2011:

· More writing. More blogging and more journaling as I continue to work towards the goal of having enough material from which to pull from to begin a book sometime over the summer. I’m super excited about responding to God’s call for me to just “write the damn book.” Getting to that point this summer will be really exciting for me as it won’t be until then that I hopefully find out where God is going with all of this stuff.

Running. I started training for a half marathon in full force back in September. I was solidly on track to finish 13 miles a month ago, but the holidays and rekindling an old relationship have taken me off my path. I’m still going to do the thing, however, slower than originally hoped for. Finishing the marathon will be the completion of my “divorce bucket list” which I’m super psyched about finishing!

Loving. Hesitant to put all my relationship details out there to the masses, but suffice it to say that God is doing his thing and answering prayers faster than I can pray them in this department. I’m super excited about what he’s doing with us and in us and am looking forward to where he takes us.

This is the first time I’ve sat down and reflected on the previous year and looked forward to what the future has to hold. I’m really glad I did this little exercise and would encourage you to do the same! I want to live with intent, purpose and meaning and writing it all out helps me see where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Join me!

Here we go. . . the first post of the new year!

Oh, 2011, you devil you. Here you are. All full of hope and promise . . . unaware of my past sins and failure, and likely waiting for me to massively screw up in the year that you (eventually) were. What are we going to do this year, you and me? Where are we going to go? What are we going to see? More importantly, what is God going to do?

I already feel like I’m behind and it’s hardly begun. I’ve slacked off on my half marathon training, haven’t written anything for the blog in weeks and now that I somewhere I have to find the motivation to overcome the resistance in both instances.

Knowing that God has ordained all of this, I know he’ll help me out, but honestly right now I don’t “feel it”, any of it. What disturbs me most is that I don’t feel Jesus. My quiet time has bit the dust over the last few weeks and I’m definitely feeling the results. The good news is that I know that it’s just a rut and that somehow, if I lean on God, he will get me out it.

A month or two ago, I applied for a blog coach (myblogrocket.net) and am starting on that journey this week. With the marathon closing in on only 3 weeks away, I have no choice but to put on my running shoes later today and get out and pound the pavement. So, the good news is that I have some accountability to get out of the rut.

The next month is going to be crazy busy with running, writing, work being in full season and my Dad being in town, finally being able to spend some time in his new condo. I’m intimidated by it all but know that being stretched is where learning and growing can actually happen, and that is definitely where I want to be. Outside of my comfort zone and smack dab in the will of God.

So here’s to 2011, and all that she may bring!