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The 2016 Rundown

| Marie Griffith

I look forward to 2017 with even greater anticipation than I did 2016. And 2016 didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful year of growth and I did a lot of new things. In one of my January posts, titled Rising, I reflected on the amazing things I saw because I made a change and decided to do something new.

Some of the “first evers” for me in 2016:

  • Ate the Paleo Diet for 12 weeks
  • Ran an 8K in May
  • Ran the Spartan Race in Nashville in August
  • Ran a 10K in October

I chose to take on these physical challenges and have learned from all of them. Mostly I learned the importance of training and doing it with others. There’s something special about being part of a group working together toward a tough common goal. I wrote about it in my post Together.

There were more new things for my family in 2016. In February we moved from our home of 13 years into my newly renovated childhood home. Our home is beautiful but there were some adjustments for us. We are no longer in a rural area and it interfered with my morning runs. I lost my running groove…..or so I thought. I just had to embrace the new and wrote about it in Embrace the New.

Throughout the year I continued issuing my Live Like it Matters Challenges but I wrote more than ever about my childhood and the legacy my parents left. Living in my childhood home has brought a flood of memories and it’s been a wonderful gift of healing, new perspective and renewed gratefulness. Some of those posts are Memory, Groundwork, Quitting, and Mama.

We went on our annual trip to the beach with many of our favorite people. It’s a special place and does our hearts good to be there. I highlighted it in my post This Place.

My son moving to Texas last year for a job, then moving to Colorado this year provided a lot of inspiration. His courage to take bold steps into the unknown is fascinating. We visited him in October and it was one of the best trips ever. I wrote several posts as a result of the trip: Possibility and Shine are two of them.

I was finally able to put into words some of the difficulties of 2013, 2014 and part of 2015. I’d start the posts, then stop. Try to start again, but no words. They just wouldn’t come. More times than not, something is worked out within me when I write and I knew I needed to write about these things. At last something broke inside of me and the words came for the first post called Linger. It took months for the other healing posts to happen but I found the words. I’ve received more comments on those posts than others because everyone has experienced loss, grief and heaviness. Those posts are called Gone and The Dark .

We had a great holiday season. We gathered with family and friends several times. On Thanksgiving I ran my 2nd Turkey Trot and significantly improved my time. Our son came home the first week of December so we celebrated Christmas with the extended family early. Christmas gets more and more special with each passing year.

God is good and 2016 has been full of blessings. But what God did within my own heart in 2016 is the most momentous. He has given me a clearer view of what’s important. I want to love extravagantly because that’s the way He loves me.

Now I will let Him teach me how to do it.

All-Time Favorites

If We Pay Attention

Image | | Marie Griffith

You are to pay special attention to those who by accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you. ~ Saint Augustine

We came into closer connection with a lot of people on our trip to Colorado.

Smiles or nods were exchanged with most of the people we saw. Or a slight raise of the hand as I passed fellow runners on the trails. Hikers seem especially courteous.

Words were exchanged with some of the people. An older gentleman commented on the collegiate sweatshirt my daughter was wearing while eating breakfast one day. While strolling downtown, a shopkeeper let us know she could see we weren’t from around there. That started a really nice conversation with her.

The waiter at the restaurant chuckled when my daughter ordered sweet tea then offered her something else.

We met a mother and daughter from Chicago on one of our hikes. The daughter is looking at the local college. Her mother was nervous on the hike, worried about bears and mountain lions but mostly the edges of the mountains and going higher and higher.

We met our son’s friends for the first time. We cooked for them and ate with them. We looked them in the eyes and talked with them and asked them about their lives. I think we were more interested in them than they were in us.

But it was so good to come into closer connection with them.

We learn from others. About them and ourselves. About who we were and who we are and sometimes about who we want to be. We learn about humanity in general.

If we pay attention.

Each one of us has a story. An important one. And we are changed by them.

If we pay attention.

Even from a distance we can be changed and learn from others. I don’t know the climber pictured here on the mountain. When I saw him I was impressed with his smallness. From observing him, I learn that he is brave and he invested a lot of time to be on that mountain.

I’m sure he felt his smallness and that his heart was full of awe and wonder.

Mine was.

Saintly

This part of the Three Quotes for Three Days Challenge issued by my friend Vanessa at Simple Joys.  Thank you Vanessa.

Shine

| Marie Griffith

The sun was still low in the sky when I went on my first run here this morning. I found a beautiful park with lots of running trails. We are in Colorado visiting my son and we’re beyond happy to be here.

We hiked the Flatirons yesterday. My son was a great guide…..excited for us to experience it. He forgets that we’re not as brave as he is. He likes to go off trail and scale rocks and jump from one rock to another. I watch him and wonder and then I’m brave.

This is a place he shines. The outdoors….a new place……rugged and risky.

..the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.   Number 6:25

 

Possibility

| Marie Griffith

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My son is doing what I always wanted to do.

Yesterday he flew to Colorado with one bag, a backpack, and no job. Last year he drove from our home in Alabama to a little town in Texas. He had a job waiting there but that was all. After the job ran out, he came home long enough to work at a place making pallets. He saved a little money, bought a plane ticket, and flew to his next adventure.

He’s 19. He says college isn’t for him. Neither is a permanent job right now.

He wants to see places and do things. The kind of things you can do before you get the kind of things you have to do.

I had dreams of doing the same but I waited too long. College and jobs and marriage and little ones took the place of adventures in far off places.

I admire his courage.

One of the first places he explored is wherever this photo was taken. He hiked the mountains near Boulder a few hours after he landed.

He is seeing beauty he’s never seen before and climbing mountains and meeting new friends. He is learning and growing.

And it’s not too late for me to see beauty I’ve never seen before or swim in a different ocean or see a sunset on a new horizon.

In response to the Weekly Photo Challenge Pure and the Daily Prompt Daring.

 

Embrace the New

| Marie Griffith

When I began this post, I didn’t realize this was going to be another installment in my Live Like it Matters Challenge. But it is.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the challenge of getting back to my running routine since we’ve moved to our new home in a post called My Groove. There are no long quiet country roads like in our previous place. To get to any roads that would work for me, I’d have to cross a busy highway. A few times I ran on our little road without crossing the highway…..back and forth and back and forth, to the highway and back down…..again and again. It wasn’t terrible but it was terribly boring.

My husband reminded me of the park in town but I wouldn’t think of it. I like to walk out my front door and start running. I don’t want to drive to the park to run.

But last week, I drove to the park to run. And I did it again two days later. And I’ve done it again a couple of times since.

So I guess the park is part of my new groove and I’m glad it is.image

First, it’s forced me to rethink my fitness. I still run, but not daily. I’ve included other things into my fitness and I needed to do that anyway.

Second, I’ve met some really cool people at the park. Like Mark. He’s an older gentlemen with 3 dogs and a disability. He doesn’t work. His wife passed away several years ago with cancer. In the only conversation we’ve ever had, he told me about his father, his wife, his disability, his dogs, the mission trips his father took, and some other things about his life. I listened.

I think he needed someone to listen.

I also met Adam. I saw his t-shirt when he ran passed me in the opposite direction and I made a comment. When I saw him again he was running in my direction and slowed down to speak. He and his family live near the park. He loves to run and has recently competed in a Spartan Race, which is where he got the t-shirt. I’ve heard about the Spartan Races and thought about doing one. I found out more information and…..who knows. I may see him at a Spartan Race one day.

Now I understand that this “new” thing, this new groove of mine, is another opportunity to Live Like it Matters.

There’a always going to be something new in our lives. Some new things are big. Some are small. A new job, a changed job description, or a layoff. A different house, another kid, a friend moves away, your dog dies or your water heater bursts and ruins every floor in your house.

New is different and sometimes it hurts. But any new thing in your life can be an opportunity.

There’s really no other option but to embrace it and make the best out of it if you want to be a happy person.

Because you matter and what you do matters.

 

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