change

I’m Finally Doing It

| Marie Griffith

I’ve thought about it for a couple of years and talked out loud about it almost as long. I took small steps toward it in January, but the change felt unnecessary and a little scary. After the Speak Up conference in June, I resolved to make it happen, even though the change still seemed daunting. Actually, a little scary turned into a lot scary but I pressed through the doubt and fear and am thrilled about the change now.

I’m finally doing it.

I’m making the leap to a whole new website designed by my friend and graphic designer, Monica Yother. She and I worked together years ago and it was a joy reconnecting, reminiscing, and collaborating on this project. The process was beautiful.

The new website is a labor of love on my part. Take my ideas and passion, add her creativity and eye for design, mix in her encouragement and my courageous moments, hundreds of back-and-forth emails, some meetings, hours and hours of work, lots of questions and edits and you get a beautifully designed website that feels exactly how I want it to feel.

The new site will be up next week. I can hardly wait for you to see it.

If you subscribe by email to this website, you’ll receive new posts from the new site in your email. No action is needed. Just eagerly await the new site.

If you’d like to receive email notifications of posts from my new site, please subscribe by email to this site. Enter your email address where it says, “You’ll get new posts through email” on the home page.

I’m excited about this change. I think you will be too.

 

 

Not Just Them

| Marie Griffith

The new year brings the feeling of fresh starts and new possibilities. I feel it. You feel it. And the advertisers know we feel it. They seize every opportunity to take advantage of our desire for change.

To make sure change happens we’ll set goals and make charts. We’ll give up this and starting doing that. Some of us will pursue simplicity and purge all the extra stuff from our lives. We’ll clean out, give away, and organize.

Deep down we know the change we want is more than a neat house or different numbers on a scale. It’s more than the places we’ll go and the stuff we’ll buy.

Maybe the writer of Hebrews wrote his letter at the start of a new year. Maybe he saw the people were distracted with lots of other things. Maybe the people were weary and wanted change desperately. So after a bunch of reminders and several warnings the writer gave them much needed encouragement. Then he urged them to do three things. But not just them. He said us.

Let us draw near to God…

Let us hold unswervingly to hope…

Let us consider how we can spur one another on in love…

You’ll find these in Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 22- 25. Read the entire passage for yourself. It’s a good one. And whether or not the author of the letter wrote it at the beginning of the year or not, I think it’d be a good way to start one. A lot of change would definitely happen.

And the most important kind of change.

Morning Coffee

| Marie Griffith

I woke up Saturday morning later than usual. I walked into the kitchen and started the coffee to brew like I always do. I had just enough time to drink a cup while I talked with my husband before I met a friend for our long Saturday run.

Lately I’ve been treating myself to a cinnamon almond milk macchiato after the miles on Saturdays and I look forward to it. But I didn’t need to stop for coffee this Saturday. Before I left the house I realized there was coffee left in the pot so I hurriedly poured it into my Yeti cup to keep it warm and brought it with me.

After the run, I said goodbye to my running partner, opened the car door and smelled the aroma of coffee. As I started the car I wondered why there was so much…….I brewed the same amount I’ve always brewed. It took me a minute to realize why I had a Yeti full of coffee. My daughter didn’t drink her portion like she usually does on Saturday morning.

She was on her honeymoon.

Like I always do, I brewed enough coffee for me and my daughter. She enjoys coffee as much as I do and she’s up early on Saturdays for her work. We sit and talk as we sip our coffee until one of us says, “I have to get ready after I tell you this”.

We both love good conversation and our morning ones are some of the best. So good that sometimes, we can barely pull away.

Her morning coffee routine will be different now. Mine too.

But it will be good.

Growing and changing.

Endings and beginnings.

These are necessary and good and beautiful.

 

 

Photo by John-Mark Smith from Pexels

Blink
 

Out of the Dark

| Marie Griffith

My life was changed forever in 2013. Everything I thought I knew……..wasn’t.

The next two years brought more difficult circumstances and what felt like too many changes. I didn’t realize how all of it affected me until I started getting better and part of what helped me come out of the dark was writing about it.

Slowly, tenderly……..a little at a time, I shared the stories on my blog.

Those smaller stories came together as a whole story and were recently published in Shattered Magazine.

When I posted my stories, I didn’t know they would go any further. I wrote the stories for the same reason I write anything…..to let others know they’re not alone, to give hope, teach or encourage, to help unlock a memory, or prompt a question they’ve never thought of asking before.

Maybe it will do one of those things for you.

Here’s a link to the story:  Darkness Couldn’t Win

 

 

 

 

The Edge

Image | | Marie Griffith

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At the edge of my grandmother’s yard there was a rock wall that separated our yard from hers. My little sister and I jumped over those rocks a thousand times. We used the rock wall as a hurdle in the pretend race courses we created.

“Run around the pecan tree and back to the barn, from the barn to the apple tree then run and jump over the rock wall. To the gravel road back through the yard over the rock wall and down to the pines. Climb the mimosa tree and down the mimosa tree then up the gravel road to the mailbox. Whoever touches the mailbox first wins.”

I can’t remember who won most of the time. Maybe we took turns winning. I do remember that when we finished the course we felt we’d done something big. Our rock wall hurdle seemed tall way back then.

The rocks are still there……exactly as they were when I was a little girl. Now I can step over those large old rocks with ease.  img_4544

The rocks haven’t changed.

But I have.

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”         Colossians 2:7

In response to the Daily Prompt Cusp.

Train

| Marie Griffith

In three weeks I’ll do something I’ve never done before. I will run my first Spartan Race. Six months ago I didn’t even know about a Spartan Race. All I know now is that my race is called a Sprint and that it’s a 3 to 5 mile obstacle race. Not only will I be running but I’ll be overcoming some crazy obstacles. We won’t know the obstacles until we run into them.

imageI’ve trained for the last two months with a group of women called Spartan Chicks, a small group formed at my church. A few of the women have run a Spartan Race but the majority of us have never done anything like it.

I’m excited because I’ve dedicated myself to the training and I feel prepared. I’m nervous because it’s new and there are a lot of unknowns.

I won’t bore you with all the “what ifs” in my head, but as nervous as the unknowns make me, the things I do know give me confidence I will finish the race well.

First, I have a team of women that have worked together, pushed one another to be better, and lifted each other. We’ve lifted each other not only with encouraging words but literally lifted each other up, helping each other conquer obstacles and fears. We’ll cheer each other on and help each other during the race if needed.

Second, I have prepared for the race. This is going to be hard. Really hard. But I’ve done things that I never thought I could do. My mind knows my body can do this. When it hurts I’ll remind myself of that. When I think I can’t go another step, I’ll remember the feeling of crossing the finish line of my first 5K. For so long I believed I couldn’t run but then I started to run. I found out I could run…..I just needed to train. I’ve trained for this and I can do this race.

I’ve made a decision to continue training………for something……..all the time. After the Spartan I plan to train for a 10K that I’ll run with my niece in the fall. Having a goal helps keep me motivated to eat “good for me” foods and exercise consistently.

I don’t stay fit to look a certain way or so that I can wear a particular dress size. I want to be as healthy as I can be because God gave me this one body and I want to care for it. I should care for it. I want to honor him with my life….my body and health included. That doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy a cinnamon crunch scone or eat a plateful of fettuccine Alfredo on occasion. Just in moderation.

I urge you to think about ways you can train for better health. Make one change…….keep at it until it becomes a healthy habit, then make another change. The point is for you to take better care of the one body you’ve been given. We can all make a healthy change. Get informed and find out what works for you. There is no perfect weight or size so don’t measure your progress with a scale. Measure it by how you feel.

Because your health matters.

Live like it matters.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.   1 Corinthians 6:19-20

 

 

 

 

My Groove

| Marie Griffith

Since the move to my new town I’ve lost my running groove. I can’t find the place I want to run…..or like to run. There’s more traffic so I’ve not explored much. My daughter and I crossed the highway Saturday and found a small neighborhood there.

But it’s not my country roads. I think I didn’t know how much I liked the country and the roads there and the quiet there. I didn’t mind running in the dark sometimes because I knew the roads. I knew the people in the houses and dogs in their yards. I didn’t mind the one car or old truck that drove slowly past while I was running.

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My country road

My husband told me last night that I may have to do what I don’t want to do. He reminded me that there are parks and high school tracks in town. And I reminded him that I don’t want to get in my car and drive somewhere to run. I want to step out of my front door and run.

So today I stepped out of my front door and ran. Two miles up and down the dead-end road I live on now. Back and forth….to the highway…..then down to the neighbors……again and again. I ran last week
too, but shorter distances because….well……it got old. This is what the route looks like on my Runkeeper app.

But guimageess what? It was a great run this morning. So I go back and forth on the same road. I’ll get used to the burly boxer barking at me from his back yard and the two little dogs in their fence. I’ll get used to the highway traffic. Maybe I’ll start waving to the traffic as I turn around to run back down to the neighbors. Then wave again when I come back to the highway and again and again. And maybe I’ll cross the highway and run in that neighborhood soon.

All I know, is that I want to run. So I’m gonna run.

And I’ll get my groove back.

 

“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.”                              Vince Lombardi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Morning

Image | | Marie Griffith

In response to The Daily Post’s Flourish.

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Along my country road morning glory vines climb fence posts and spill onto the sides of the road. The sun was barely up one morning when I noticed hundreds of them in full bloom. I love the translucence of the violet petals, the lively heart shaped leaves, and the dew droplets……….

The morning glory will slowly swirl closed as the day fades.

Like the morning glory, I’m at my best in the early part of the day.

 

 ………But a shout of joy comes in the morning.    Psalm 30:5 NASB

Run

| Marie Griffith

On April 18th I ran a 5K.

This is amazing because for 30 years I believed I couldn’t run.  I am physically capable but I had a mental block about running.

I started to believe I could run after doing 8 weeks of Seal Fit and eating differently. Each workout of the day consisted of various exercises that included short runs. One part of a workout might be 4 sets of a 200 yard run, 20 squats, 10 mountain climbers, and 15 push ups.  My endurance increased after each workout and I liked the way I felt after running.

I have a friend who trained for and completed her first half-marathon last year. She suffers with asthma but she learned to control her breathing and ran the entire race.  I was inspired by her resolve not to let asthma control her.

Last fall I began using the C25K app on my smart phone with no real intentions of doing a 5K.  I was so excited when I ran for eight straight minutes during the 5th week of training.  Then I ran 10 minutes, then 20.  The next thing I knew I wanted to run a 5K and set a goal to run one in 2015.

When I learned that Hospice of the Valley was hosting a Celebrating Life 5K I knew it was the one. I would be able to run in honor of Mom. We were blessed to have them care for my mother during her last 7 months battling COPD.  They were all very special to Mom and to us.

For two weeks leading up to the race I was a bit nervous.  I didn’t care about my time.  I just wanted to run the entire race.

On April 18th I ran the 3.1 miles placing 81st of 120 runners.

When I thought about quitting I thought of Mom who couldn’t run. I thought about how I would feel when I finished. I thought about my husband and daughter waiting for me at the finish line.

My daughter took this picture right after I crossed the finish line

Needless to say that was a very happy moment for me. It was exhilarating to run that race.  More importantly I was excited about what it meant for me in other areas of my life.

The thing is, I can do a lot more than I think I can. My mind just has to change first.

Any deep change in how we live starts with a deep change in what we believe and how we think. The change can start with trying something new.  Or experiencing a job loss or health crisis. A tragedy can spark the change.  Even watching someone else change can inspire it.

Whatever that thing is you thought you could never do:  try it.

Want to sing?  Paint?  Start a business? Write a book? Lose 50 pounds?  Be a speaker?

Take a class. Get some information. Do something.  Just try it. You might be amazed at what happens.

I plan on participating in the Celebrating Life 5K each year. Not only that, I’m going to run another 5K in the fall.

And I’m going to place better than 81st.