1. While waiting for my turn to get to the start line and during the whole race I read lots of T-shirt backs.
It kind of made me sad that ours wasn't ready yet.
2. At mile 8 when I knew I was in trouble and I knew the only way I was going to get through it was to call on the Lord with Worship in Praise, and He didn't let me down. This has happened to me many times during these types of events and I think it is so typical of our everyday lives. Why do we try to always do it on our own? and then when we realize that some thing's wrong we call on God to bail us out. Maybe if I'd thought ahead enough and invited God to go for a run with me that day, I would have had a better event. The same is true everyday. Let's invite God to be with us each morning and see what a difference God makes in our lives.
3. Hills are always going to be on our road of life. Some small and some large. But as long as we keep Praising God with song and our life, it won't be long till we have run our race and we will be VICTORIOUS!
4. Why is it that some times the most important people in our lives are the last ones we thank.
For 39 years my wonderful wife has followed me from one type of sporting event to another. Sometimes I think just wants to see what kind of goofy thing I will do next. Sunday was no different. Once I finished, got my medal and some water, as I waded thru the crowd, and there she was, smiling from ear to ear, just happy that once again I had returned to her in one piece. She had Gatorade, warm clothes to put on and a big hug for me. (Don't forget the one's you love)
Thank you Sweat Heart. I Love you very much
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
So many people
Yesterday I ran the Philadelphia 1/2 marathon. Here's how the day went.
Woke up at 1 am. Not on purpose. Pre-race nerves. If I haven't mentioned it before, I am very competitive. Couldn't go back to sleep so I Face booked for an hour. Finally got sleepy again around 2 am and went back to bed. Got up again at 4 am. This time on purpose. I had to eat my pre-race meal. A pbj and a coke. A coke you say? Of course. I love the stuff and can't live without it. I've tried and things don't go well at home or anywhere else for that matter. This meal doesn't upset my stomach when running. Took a hot shower trying to warm up the ageing bones and got dressed. It was only 37 degrees outside so I wore running tights, shorts and 2 long sleeve shirts. One cotton and one wicking over the cotton. Didn't work, I was still cold. At 5 am the rest of the house started to move around. We spent the weekend with Tony and Ivette and they were kind enough to drive me and Char to the race and then wait till I got finished to take us home again. Thanks guys. When we got there the lines to the Port O Potties were really long, so I just stood there and waited my turn. For a while, it didn't look like I would make the start of the race, but it all worked out. I did have to start from the coral behind the one that I should have. That means another 1000 people or so between me and the finish line. Corals are staged, based on your predicted time of finish. The faster you are the closer to the front you get to start. That way you should be running with people of the same speed. The problem is that most people apparently don't know how fast or (slow) they really are, so their predicted finish time is way off. All these events are electronically timed with a chip either on your shoe or on your number bib, so it really doesn't matter when you cross the start line. The best part about starting with slower people is that you get to pass a lot during the event. But the first couple miles really kill your overall time because there are wall to wall people and the only way to pass everyone is to run from side to side and squeeze in between all the humanity. Tried that last month in the Army 10 miler in D.C. and my Garmin said I ran an extra 1/4 of a mile. So I tried to be patient. Not my strong suit. The first water stop was around the 2 mile mark. I ran thru most of it and got lucky by catching the last person handing out Gator aid. Probably passed 100 people but I was already down 2.5 min from where I wanted to be. The next water stop was at about 3.5 miles. I ran all the way thru and the traffic started to open up speed without running people over. By mile 4 I was really picking up the pace. Keep in mind that while I am picking up the pace, the winner of the race was running 4 minutes per mile faster than I would run all day. Must be nice. But we should always use what God has given us to the best of our ability, and I was. I knew I was running to hard trying to make up the lost time, but again, if we don't push ourselves every now and then, how will we know what we can really do. I got a drink at mile 5 and thought that if the course stayed this flat I could break the 2 hr mark.
Wish full thinking. I think that between mile 6 and 8 there were 2 bridges to go up and down. Now I usually slow down on purpose on hills to save energy. Not today. By time I topped the second bridge both my legs and lungs were on fire. Got more to drink around the 8 mile mark and working very hard. I knew I was going to be in trouble soon. So what do I do? I did what I always do. "I turned my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, The maker of heaven and earth". I sang this as a chant in time with my foot steps. The singing was in my head because I was breathing to hard to make words. But I am still catching the clock. Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 was the world longest hill. Not really, but it seemed that way. About half way up, a very thin woman went bounding by saying "just say the hills are our friends and everything will be OK! I said " I don't think so Tim" but she never heard me, because I still couldn't make words. Back to the chant. After the road flattened out for a while we got to go down. Yea!!! I let gravity pull me down as fast as I dare to try and pick up the time lost going up. Got my last drink at mile 11. The time on my watch told me that if I was going to break 2 hrs today I was going to have to pass an Army 2 mile PT run for a man 30 years younger than me. There was only one thing to do.
HOO AH!!! This was now at the end of every chant and I started to pick up the pace. At mile 12 I stumbled and almost went down. I've seen people go down before and it's not pretty on the asphalt. Mile 12.5 I manage to get out some words. I'm yelling at my legs not to stop. Like they can hear, right. Another woman hears me and says "come on buddy your almost there". I'm thinkin, Buddy! That's not my name. But I have a good friend that has the name Buddy and he can't run any more. So I'll run the last 1/2 mile for him. Now I can see the finish line and I know that with just a little more effort I can do it. I cross the finish in 1:59:55 PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
It's actually Tuesday already. It took me 2 days to write this. I'm still a little sore, but was able to get in an easy 3 mile run after work today. Now it's time to eat and then go Bowling. More on that later.
The whole time I ran the race Sunday, in between chants and everything else that was going on, I was thinking about how I would write this. So thanks to all of you for helping me. And a big thanks to God, that I can still do this stuff.
Have a great life, and God Bless
Woke up at 1 am. Not on purpose. Pre-race nerves. If I haven't mentioned it before, I am very competitive. Couldn't go back to sleep so I Face booked for an hour. Finally got sleepy again around 2 am and went back to bed. Got up again at 4 am. This time on purpose. I had to eat my pre-race meal. A pbj and a coke. A coke you say? Of course. I love the stuff and can't live without it. I've tried and things don't go well at home or anywhere else for that matter. This meal doesn't upset my stomach when running. Took a hot shower trying to warm up the ageing bones and got dressed. It was only 37 degrees outside so I wore running tights, shorts and 2 long sleeve shirts. One cotton and one wicking over the cotton. Didn't work, I was still cold. At 5 am the rest of the house started to move around. We spent the weekend with Tony and Ivette and they were kind enough to drive me and Char to the race and then wait till I got finished to take us home again. Thanks guys. When we got there the lines to the Port O Potties were really long, so I just stood there and waited my turn. For a while, it didn't look like I would make the start of the race, but it all worked out. I did have to start from the coral behind the one that I should have. That means another 1000 people or so between me and the finish line. Corals are staged, based on your predicted time of finish. The faster you are the closer to the front you get to start. That way you should be running with people of the same speed. The problem is that most people apparently don't know how fast or (slow) they really are, so their predicted finish time is way off. All these events are electronically timed with a chip either on your shoe or on your number bib, so it really doesn't matter when you cross the start line. The best part about starting with slower people is that you get to pass a lot during the event. But the first couple miles really kill your overall time because there are wall to wall people and the only way to pass everyone is to run from side to side and squeeze in between all the humanity. Tried that last month in the Army 10 miler in D.C. and my Garmin said I ran an extra 1/4 of a mile. So I tried to be patient. Not my strong suit. The first water stop was around the 2 mile mark. I ran thru most of it and got lucky by catching the last person handing out Gator aid. Probably passed 100 people but I was already down 2.5 min from where I wanted to be. The next water stop was at about 3.5 miles. I ran all the way thru and the traffic started to open up speed without running people over. By mile 4 I was really picking up the pace. Keep in mind that while I am picking up the pace, the winner of the race was running 4 minutes per mile faster than I would run all day. Must be nice. But we should always use what God has given us to the best of our ability, and I was. I knew I was running to hard trying to make up the lost time, but again, if we don't push ourselves every now and then, how will we know what we can really do. I got a drink at mile 5 and thought that if the course stayed this flat I could break the 2 hr mark.
Wish full thinking. I think that between mile 6 and 8 there were 2 bridges to go up and down. Now I usually slow down on purpose on hills to save energy. Not today. By time I topped the second bridge both my legs and lungs were on fire. Got more to drink around the 8 mile mark and working very hard. I knew I was going to be in trouble soon. So what do I do? I did what I always do. "I turned my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, The maker of heaven and earth". I sang this as a chant in time with my foot steps. The singing was in my head because I was breathing to hard to make words. But I am still catching the clock. Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 was the world longest hill. Not really, but it seemed that way. About half way up, a very thin woman went bounding by saying "just say the hills are our friends and everything will be OK! I said " I don't think so Tim" but she never heard me, because I still couldn't make words. Back to the chant. After the road flattened out for a while we got to go down. Yea!!! I let gravity pull me down as fast as I dare to try and pick up the time lost going up. Got my last drink at mile 11. The time on my watch told me that if I was going to break 2 hrs today I was going to have to pass an Army 2 mile PT run for a man 30 years younger than me. There was only one thing to do.
HOO AH!!! This was now at the end of every chant and I started to pick up the pace. At mile 12 I stumbled and almost went down. I've seen people go down before and it's not pretty on the asphalt. Mile 12.5 I manage to get out some words. I'm yelling at my legs not to stop. Like they can hear, right. Another woman hears me and says "come on buddy your almost there". I'm thinkin, Buddy! That's not my name. But I have a good friend that has the name Buddy and he can't run any more. So I'll run the last 1/2 mile for him. Now I can see the finish line and I know that with just a little more effort I can do it. I cross the finish in 1:59:55 PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
It's actually Tuesday already. It took me 2 days to write this. I'm still a little sore, but was able to get in an easy 3 mile run after work today. Now it's time to eat and then go Bowling. More on that later.
The whole time I ran the race Sunday, in between chants and everything else that was going on, I was thinking about how I would write this. So thanks to all of you for helping me. And a big thanks to God, that I can still do this stuff.
Have a great life, and God Bless
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The plan:
Sorry it took so long to get back on here. Last Sunday went almost as planned except that no one came forward at church.
Frisbee was awesome. I really like to play. To bad I'm not very good at it. Although I run all the time, the sprinting just tears me up. It was Thursday before the soreness went away, so my running workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday took a lot more concentration than normal to ignore the discomfort. I seem to be living the song by Toby Keith. "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was". The problem is, that once takes so long to recover from.
Anyway, The plan
I am not a real wealthy person, but I can come up my Relay For Life donation goal of 200.00. However, have you ever heard of a geometrical progression? This is where you start out with 1 penny and each day you double the amount and after 31 days you have millions of dollars. If we can come up with the right slogan to go with Run For Their Life, 12 hours against cancer and then get it printed on T-shirts, I can start wearing them to regular running events. Usually at these events most people read each others shirts while standing around waiting for the start, plus people wear a promotion shirt for a good cause just to promote that cause. If the shirts sold for 10.00, which most people can afford and if the geometrical progression took place, in a just few years we could have these shirts on millions of people all around the world and finance the cost for the Cure.
The twist:
During the Relay For life this year and there after I will do 12 hours of the local relay with my team CHCC. This year, I received an MP3 player for my 5 year anniversary with my company. It is brand new, never been used. I will give it to the person that buys a T-shirt and can guess how many miles to the nearest 10th of a mile that I can go in 12 hours. In time and the use of media like this post we can attract sponsors for bigger give aways and more people buying T-shirts and guessing how far I can go each time. I will give regular updates on my training to try and help people make a better guess. There are always things that take place during my runs and races that remind me of certain key events in my life and I can write them down to help build interest. Some will make you laugh and some will make you cry. Well, I guess they will. They did for me. So those are the basics of the plan. There are still a lot of details to work out and I am admittedly very slow at making things happen. The training part will be the easiest thing for me to do because I really like sports and physical challenges. I will need help with the rest of it. First thing is the design of the shirts.
So put on your thinking caps and come up with a design that everyone would be proud to wear.
I look forward to hearing from all 6 of my followers.
Have a great life and God Bless
Frisbee was awesome. I really like to play. To bad I'm not very good at it. Although I run all the time, the sprinting just tears me up. It was Thursday before the soreness went away, so my running workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday took a lot more concentration than normal to ignore the discomfort. I seem to be living the song by Toby Keith. "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was". The problem is, that once takes so long to recover from.
Anyway, The plan
I am not a real wealthy person, but I can come up my Relay For Life donation goal of 200.00. However, have you ever heard of a geometrical progression? This is where you start out with 1 penny and each day you double the amount and after 31 days you have millions of dollars. If we can come up with the right slogan to go with Run For Their Life, 12 hours against cancer and then get it printed on T-shirts, I can start wearing them to regular running events. Usually at these events most people read each others shirts while standing around waiting for the start, plus people wear a promotion shirt for a good cause just to promote that cause. If the shirts sold for 10.00, which most people can afford and if the geometrical progression took place, in a just few years we could have these shirts on millions of people all around the world and finance the cost for the Cure.
The twist:
During the Relay For life this year and there after I will do 12 hours of the local relay with my team CHCC. This year, I received an MP3 player for my 5 year anniversary with my company. It is brand new, never been used. I will give it to the person that buys a T-shirt and can guess how many miles to the nearest 10th of a mile that I can go in 12 hours. In time and the use of media like this post we can attract sponsors for bigger give aways and more people buying T-shirts and guessing how far I can go each time. I will give regular updates on my training to try and help people make a better guess. There are always things that take place during my runs and races that remind me of certain key events in my life and I can write them down to help build interest. Some will make you laugh and some will make you cry. Well, I guess they will. They did for me. So those are the basics of the plan. There are still a lot of details to work out and I am admittedly very slow at making things happen. The training part will be the easiest thing for me to do because I really like sports and physical challenges. I will need help with the rest of it. First thing is the design of the shirts.
So put on your thinking caps and come up with a design that everyone would be proud to wear.
I look forward to hearing from all 6 of my followers.
Have a great life and God Bless
Sunday, November 14, 2010
A day of Worship
A day of Worship. We leave in about 25 Min to go to Praise team practice. 45 Min of practice, 45 Min of Sunday school, 25 Min of corporate Praise to the our God Most High, 30 Min of preaching from preacher Mike. (Always good stuff). Then, I Pray that someone comes forward and excepts Christ as their Savior today. Off to lunch. Then the Mrs has Christmas play practice and I get to play Frisbee with the Youth Group. When we get home, we will watch the Sprint Cup race on DVR. Today, I am pulling for Happy Harvick to close up the points battle, but I'd like to see Carl win the race and sweep the weekend.
I would like to thank those of you that are reading. I Pray the word spreads like wild fire and together we
can STOMP out this cancer.
Have a great life and God Bless
I would like to thank those of you that are reading. I Pray the word spreads like wild fire and together we
can STOMP out this cancer.
Have a great life and God Bless
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Numbers don't lie
Numbers don't lie
As my interest grew about this disease, I did some research to find out how many lives were lost each year. I will start with the good news. The good news is that due to cancer research, the numbers are dropping.
The bad news is that it was estimated 569,490 lives would be lost in 2010. That's 1,560 people each day, just here in the U.S.
Since I am retired military, I was curious as to how that compared to lives lost in war for the U.S. From the Revolutionary War to the present the U.S. has lost nearly 700,000 Armed Forces lives. A little more than cancer will take in one year. The civil war was the worst. It claimed 599 lives a day. Roughly 1/3 the lives that will be claimed by cancer today. The worst tragedy in modern history that I know of, was the Holocaust. From 1933-1945, over 6 million people were killed because they were different than the people that were killing them. That's almost 1,500 lives lost each day for no good reason. Does that number sound familiar? However, Cancer doesn't care who we are. It doesn't care about our Race, Religion, Sex, the color of our hair or eyes, short or tall, thin or round, political beliefs Right or Left, athlete or couch potato.
It doesn't care about you, me, our mom's our dad's, our son's our daughters, brothers or sisters!
OK, I'll stop. I was talking to a co-worker yesterday and she asked if I had been RANTING about anything lately. I said, "what do you mean"? I don't rant. Ap-par-ant-ly, I do.
The numbers don't lie. They can't even talk. Yet, they speak volumes of truth. Are we listening?
What can we do? Next, I'll try to explain my Vision, Uh-my Dream, Uh-my Idea. Ok, it's not mine at all. It's been tried before, but hopefully I can put a little different twist to it.
Until next time. Be safe and God Bless.
As my interest grew about this disease, I did some research to find out how many lives were lost each year. I will start with the good news. The good news is that due to cancer research, the numbers are dropping.
The bad news is that it was estimated 569,490 lives would be lost in 2010. That's 1,560 people each day, just here in the U.S.
Since I am retired military, I was curious as to how that compared to lives lost in war for the U.S. From the Revolutionary War to the present the U.S. has lost nearly 700,000 Armed Forces lives. A little more than cancer will take in one year. The civil war was the worst. It claimed 599 lives a day. Roughly 1/3 the lives that will be claimed by cancer today. The worst tragedy in modern history that I know of, was the Holocaust. From 1933-1945, over 6 million people were killed because they were different than the people that were killing them. That's almost 1,500 lives lost each day for no good reason. Does that number sound familiar? However, Cancer doesn't care who we are. It doesn't care about our Race, Religion, Sex, the color of our hair or eyes, short or tall, thin or round, political beliefs Right or Left, athlete or couch potato.
It doesn't care about you, me, our mom's our dad's, our son's our daughters, brothers or sisters!
OK, I'll stop. I was talking to a co-worker yesterday and she asked if I had been RANTING about anything lately. I said, "what do you mean"? I don't rant. Ap-par-ant-ly, I do.
The numbers don't lie. They can't even talk. Yet, they speak volumes of truth. Are we listening?
What can we do? Next, I'll try to explain my Vision, Uh-my Dream, Uh-my Idea. Ok, it's not mine at all. It's been tried before, but hopefully I can put a little different twist to it.
Until next time. Be safe and God Bless.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
What can I do?
What can I do?
So what could I to do? I Prayed. They had obviously wanted their privacy about this, because the news was not on the Prayer list at church, so I didn't want to run up and start talking about what they were going thru.
I Prayed some more. I didn't want to see my friend lose his mom while he was only 20 or 21 as I had. Although my mom didn't have cancer it hard to lose your mom when she is only 43. It makes you wonder what is going on. Those are the times when children and parents are just starting to be on the same page with each other and figure out who each other really is. I had lost that with my mom and did not want the same thing to happen to Jacob. I Prayed some more.
Around the 1st of May this year Jacobs mom announce that the Relay For Life would be taking place near the end of May. Relay For Life is an annual event to raise funds to help fight cancer. The object is to have teams and that a member of your team was supposed to be on the course the whole time. The event starts at about 1830 on Friday evening and goes to about 0830 Saturday morning. At last! something I could do. There was a sign up sheet in the foyer at church for our team, divided into 30 minute shifts. However, no one was signing up from 0000 to 0500. Sorry! In case you haven't guessed. I am retired military and the 2400 hr clock works much better for me. (12 to 5 am) So I took 4 hrs and my friend Rhonda who is also retired military took the other hr.
It was all very moving. After the initial ceremony stuff, the first lap on the course was walked by cancer survivors. By the way I am happy to say, Jacob's mom will be in that group this year and her hair is growing back nicely. Praise God. The whole time that night, all the Relay teams were selling things like T-shirts or trinkets of some sort to help raise money to fight cancer. Preacher Mike even got arrested by the local sheriffs department and put in a fake jail. It cost me $10.00 to bail him out. He's my buddy, so it was worth it. When it was over, we were all pretty tired from staying up all night. But it was a hoot. All those people circling that 1/2 mile course for something they believe in. However, I want to do more.
Well, that's it for today. I got to write a lot today because I am off work for Veterans Day. Work you say?
Retired military pay is not enough to actually retire on, but it is truly a Blessing to be able to add it in at the end of each month. Tomorrow I will talk about statistics. I like numbers. They tell a lot. For now the only number I need to know is 4. That's how many miles I will run today. Take care and God Bless.
So what could I to do? I Prayed. They had obviously wanted their privacy about this, because the news was not on the Prayer list at church, so I didn't want to run up and start talking about what they were going thru.
I Prayed some more. I didn't want to see my friend lose his mom while he was only 20 or 21 as I had. Although my mom didn't have cancer it hard to lose your mom when she is only 43. It makes you wonder what is going on. Those are the times when children and parents are just starting to be on the same page with each other and figure out who each other really is. I had lost that with my mom and did not want the same thing to happen to Jacob. I Prayed some more.
Around the 1st of May this year Jacobs mom announce that the Relay For Life would be taking place near the end of May. Relay For Life is an annual event to raise funds to help fight cancer. The object is to have teams and that a member of your team was supposed to be on the course the whole time. The event starts at about 1830 on Friday evening and goes to about 0830 Saturday morning. At last! something I could do. There was a sign up sheet in the foyer at church for our team, divided into 30 minute shifts. However, no one was signing up from 0000 to 0500. Sorry! In case you haven't guessed. I am retired military and the 2400 hr clock works much better for me. (12 to 5 am) So I took 4 hrs and my friend Rhonda who is also retired military took the other hr.
It was all very moving. After the initial ceremony stuff, the first lap on the course was walked by cancer survivors. By the way I am happy to say, Jacob's mom will be in that group this year and her hair is growing back nicely. Praise God. The whole time that night, all the Relay teams were selling things like T-shirts or trinkets of some sort to help raise money to fight cancer. Preacher Mike even got arrested by the local sheriffs department and put in a fake jail. It cost me $10.00 to bail him out. He's my buddy, so it was worth it. When it was over, we were all pretty tired from staying up all night. But it was a hoot. All those people circling that 1/2 mile course for something they believe in. However, I want to do more.
Well, that's it for today. I got to write a lot today because I am off work for Veterans Day. Work you say?
Retired military pay is not enough to actually retire on, but it is truly a Blessing to be able to add it in at the end of each month. Tomorrow I will talk about statistics. I like numbers. They tell a lot. For now the only number I need to know is 4. That's how many miles I will run today. Take care and God Bless.
Run For Their Life
The first time I heard the word blog was about 3 years ago. Our preacher Mike was talking about today's ways of communication and how it could be used to spread the Gospel. If you had a blog, that would make you a blogger. At the time, I had no intention of starting a blog or becoming a blogger. A blogger sounded like something that came from my nose. No thanks.
Yet, here I am. Blogging away, trying to reach as many people as I can. Why? Because I have something in my heart that I need to share. At times, I sure this will sound a bit odd or maybe even far fetched. But, that's who I am. My loving wife of 39 years refers to this as The World According to Les.
Reality Sets In
I met Jacob about 7 years ago. I was his 8th grade Sunday School teacher and I also helped out with most of our Youth Group activities. i.e. Youth Conventions, HALO fests at my house, Ultimate Frisbee in the park and so on. As time went by we became friends. Not the kind of friends that throw their arms around each other and say I LOVE YOU MAN, but a competitive friendship from playing the games and Ultimate. For me that is the best kind. I love to compete. However, I am about 37 years older. So trying to keep up and play the game of Ultimate Frisbee with him and the rest of the Youth Group often proved to be very challenging, and sometimes in order to make up for my lack of sprinting speed and general skill of the game, I would get more physical with him to try and slow him down. Now, there was only so much of this that he was gonna take before he would get mad and get in my face about the illegal contact. Ultimate is suppose to be a none contact sport. It was times like this that let me know we were really friends. Now, is that ODD?
Anyway, most times, when we were on trips together, he would ask my wife Charlyne to put one of his Cd's in the player for everyone to hear. His style of Christian music bothered Charlyne and he knew it. Then he would ask her for a piece of gum. He was always asking her for gum. I think sometimes just to see if she had some. We were friends.
Now Jacob's music didn't bother me--much. I am a musician and my mind is a little more flexible in that area. I play rhythm guitar and sing on our praise team almost every week. From the stage I can see almost everyone in our congregation. And usually while trying to read the words and chords of the songs we are doing I try to look out at my church family. Because to me, there is nothing more beautiful, than to see them with their hands raised and smiles on their faces as they sing Praises to God. And it's usually pretty easy to find any particular person in the group, because, for some reason we all sit in the same place every week. Not sure why, we just do. So, one Sunday while we are singing, I see my friends mom with a new hair do. Every hair was in place. It seemed as though it had been straightened and perfectly molded to her face.
The next week it was the same and the week after that the same.
Now you don't spend 57 years on this earth and not understand that in time everything changes. Especially a woman's hair. It was that 3rd Sunday that my heart sank and I felt a deep sorrow for my friend.
As Reality Set In I realized, my friends mom had cancer.
Yet, here I am. Blogging away, trying to reach as many people as I can. Why? Because I have something in my heart that I need to share. At times, I sure this will sound a bit odd or maybe even far fetched. But, that's who I am. My loving wife of 39 years refers to this as The World According to Les.
Reality Sets In
I met Jacob about 7 years ago. I was his 8th grade Sunday School teacher and I also helped out with most of our Youth Group activities. i.e. Youth Conventions, HALO fests at my house, Ultimate Frisbee in the park and so on. As time went by we became friends. Not the kind of friends that throw their arms around each other and say I LOVE YOU MAN, but a competitive friendship from playing the games and Ultimate. For me that is the best kind. I love to compete. However, I am about 37 years older. So trying to keep up and play the game of Ultimate Frisbee with him and the rest of the Youth Group often proved to be very challenging, and sometimes in order to make up for my lack of sprinting speed and general skill of the game, I would get more physical with him to try and slow him down. Now, there was only so much of this that he was gonna take before he would get mad and get in my face about the illegal contact. Ultimate is suppose to be a none contact sport. It was times like this that let me know we were really friends. Now, is that ODD?
Anyway, most times, when we were on trips together, he would ask my wife Charlyne to put one of his Cd's in the player for everyone to hear. His style of Christian music bothered Charlyne and he knew it. Then he would ask her for a piece of gum. He was always asking her for gum. I think sometimes just to see if she had some. We were friends.
Now Jacob's music didn't bother me--much. I am a musician and my mind is a little more flexible in that area. I play rhythm guitar and sing on our praise team almost every week. From the stage I can see almost everyone in our congregation. And usually while trying to read the words and chords of the songs we are doing I try to look out at my church family. Because to me, there is nothing more beautiful, than to see them with their hands raised and smiles on their faces as they sing Praises to God. And it's usually pretty easy to find any particular person in the group, because, for some reason we all sit in the same place every week. Not sure why, we just do. So, one Sunday while we are singing, I see my friends mom with a new hair do. Every hair was in place. It seemed as though it had been straightened and perfectly molded to her face.
The next week it was the same and the week after that the same.
Now you don't spend 57 years on this earth and not understand that in time everything changes. Especially a woman's hair. It was that 3rd Sunday that my heart sank and I felt a deep sorrow for my friend.
As Reality Set In I realized, my friends mom had cancer.
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