Another Monday.

I’m up past my bedtime… again, but I’m celebrating that I don’t have to get up before 6am tomorrow morning. I feel like I have been pretty out of it the past week. I got the flu bug pretty bad last Tuesday night, which took me out for a couple of days, and then left for Mexico (near Cancun) for my cousin’s wedding. It was nice to get away for a bit and see my family and bag some rays, of course. I bagged a few too many on my back side, however. Note to self: avoid foam rolling a very sunburned back… ouch. Needless to say, I have had very little physical activity and more margaritas and tortilla chips than normal.

Today, I was back in the gym and had no real agenda… probably not the best thing, but I decided that I wanted to do “Diane” since it has been a few months and it is the first Regional workout. I would love to tell you that I crushed my old (and very impressive) time of 11:27, but instead I got exactly the same time. Exactly! At least I’m consistent I thought I might “pace” my handstand push-ups, but regardless they go to shit after the first set to 21 anyway… ones and twos. Disappointing. I went for an easy run later in the day just to clear my head and breathe.

On another note, I’ve decided I’m actually going to try to read more… books that is. I started reading one in the airport yesterday. ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years’ by Donald Miller. I’ve had it for a long time and got half way through it at some point, but then stopped (very typical). It’s non-fiction and mostly about how every life tells a story, and how we can choose to live a better story. Easier said than done, I know, but I’m enjoying it. Here are a few excerpts that I liked so far…

“If I have a hope, it’s that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say ‘Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.’” (p.59)

“And once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don’t have a choice. Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die, and it’s not natural to want to die.” (p.66)

“People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.” (p.100)

I especially like that last one. Anyway, it’s honest and thoughtful, and is just making me think about my life and the story it’s telling and the story I want it to tell. Lots of re-figuring things out! Perhaps I’ll talk more on it when I finish the book… something that is actually going to happen this time around! Ok, time for dreaming…