And...break!

The family and I had a wonderful Christmas, as you should be able to tell from our pleasant picture, and my general state of shortness within it.

I'd felt rather slumped these past few days, as I tried to tell myself to relax and unwind and enjoy the break. The problem with me as, in so much that I really enjoy having "down" times of the day everyday, and balance, I am not too sure that I really like extended breaks, and I am quite sure that this is okay, if my personality tends this way.

So instead of waiting until 2013 to start, I've decided.

Marathon training here I come!

This picture above is somewhat facetious, it being taken during a snowball battle to the death, and not an actual marathon training session (however, I was quite out of breath upon the completion of snowball battling).

But, I am excited to have registered, on this 26th day of December, for the Baltimore Running Festival Marathon on October, 12, 2013. I am even more excited that this is another race to be run with my beautiful friend K, as a sequel to our amazing race journey of October 2011.

I am going to be running for charity: water, because I live in a world where I can get clean water more easily than others, and that is not okay with me. But I am also running for me. Because running makes me stronger, happier, less worried, less stressed, and better able to take on the world. Because running reminds me that I can, even when I think I can't.

I know I run when some others may be cannot, and I do not take that for granted. But primarily, from the joy and purpose I get from it, running is a selfish act for me, and I want to make it an act of as much love as possible this 2013.

So tomorrow, and next week, and the week after that, I'll be running. And then maybe after October 2013, I'll never run again. But this is an important adventure for me, and I am willing to be open to all it will teach me, starting...right...now.

Merry merry!

I am taking a blog break to spend time with my lovely family, my beloved friends, and the reason they exist, a wondrous and awesome God who gives us a beautiful, chaotic, fascinating creation of which to be a part.

Please be well and know you are so loved!

Consuming Kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2XSaaQjuuK0

This is on my "to watch" list for over the holiday break.

I really believe that we are desensitizing ourselves to what really matters in life by overuse of technology, commercialism, decreased face-to-face expression and communication, and overemphasis on production as opposed to creation.

Involving our kids in this is something I don't really want to be a part of, and I am looking forward to what others say about how we can prevent that to instead raise whole children.

Thankful because

...I came head to head with this today.

At first I was sad, scared, reactive.

Then I was accepting.

Then I was thankful for the reminder that I cannot be all things to all people, and I should never have to be.

I can't even be all things to myself.

I can only do what I can and be thankful for community and powers greater than myself that help me to be just a small little piece of the world turning and the galaxies swirling.

We are all, all, ALL, God's beloved children

Children in Pakistan lighting candles to remember the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting in America.

Beauty, strength, truth

Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist pop culture media critic who produces an ongoing web series of video commentaries from a feminist/fangirl perspective.

She creates out of http://www.feministfrequency.com/ and has been an inspiration to me for a couple of years now, after I watched her videos on women's portrayal in popular movies, and particularly those films that are critically acclaimed/Academy Award winners.

When she was harassed for her project on women's portrayal in popular video games, I knew one thing for certain - she was going to hold her own and rise above. I am so proud of Anita and so thankful this Christmas season that there are so many ways to speak out in truth for what is right.

On a slightly vain and certainly silly note

It's a shame that Michael Bloomberg only has daughters.

I am trying to have higher expectations, and marrying a public-health-supporting, globally-minded Bloomberg would make sense.

Told you. Silly and vain.

Soldiering on.