Retirement - well one of them

It's the duty weekend for my Air Force Reserve unit. I slept in. A week ago I retired from the Reserve. Everyon ekept talking about the mixed emotions I would feel. Nope - no mixes here. I'm thrilled and completely excited to be starting a new phase in my life.

I served for 23 years. Before that, I was born into an Air Force family. I still work as a civil service employee for the Air Force. I haven't escaped completely, but there is something new and wonderful happening.

For most of my life I've had 2-4 jobs at a time. Today I have one. That's strange. With all this "free time" I plan to get back into school, finish up the last couple of classes I need for my Bachelors degree and begin my journey toward a Masters in Worship ministry.

So, if I don't see you at work, I'll see you in church.....


Chow!

catch-up and prayer

Wow – been a while since I wrote an entry! OK, so I’m not a professional blogger and I’m totally OK with it. No offense meant to my friends who are faithful with their blog entries, I’m really awed by their ability to be regular with their writing.

A few months ago I made the mistake of writing that there were only a few free moments left in my week. I knew by doing that they would somehow be claimed. Well they are. I’ve joined a Christian band and am playing bass guitar at the church I started attending. So, there goes the rest of my free time – in fact, I need to tighten up my schedule to get more practice time in for both piano and bass – oh and I’m picking up the miles in my running as I aim for my first half marathon this year. 

I did get an incredible God shot this morning right after my first 5.25 mile run after surgery.  I grabbed my phone with fumbling fingers and must have hit the button for my daily bible verse. Now, this run was incredibly tough for me as I've been recovering from a major surgery (though not one caused by anything life-threatening). At my half-way point I was actually yelling out loud at myself to keep moving - the run got better since the first part is pretty much a long, slow uphill pull. Anyway, the verse that popped up was so perfect, it was Isaiah 40: 29-31

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint. 

I just couldn't keep from laughing out loud since I'd been pleading with God to get me over that next hill just about 30 minutes prior.

But sitting here watching what the people of Japan are going through makes my time management worries and efforts to run one more hill look so very small.

Tens of thousands of people are missing after the earthquake and following tsunami. A pair of nuclear power generators is leaking radiation and the Japanese government has declared an atomic emergency and has begun evacuating a 13-mile radius area around the plants.

All I can do is pray for those people and that nation.  This is the same nation that joined us in relief efforts in Haiti, Pakistan and other places around the world. I’m praying for them as they search for loved ones and that they find the giver of all peace in the midst of chaos.    

Hug an election volunteer today

Today was Election Day. I’d almost decided not to participate because I feel like our politics is getting in the way of our nation. Then I realized how foolish that is. We have a chance to effect change if we just exercise our part in that process. I realized today that casting my vote is not just my right, but it’s my responsibility.

I was rewarded with the opportunity to watch people. People outside the elementary school that hosts my precinct’s polls were out to get that last fence-sitting vote from those headed inside.

One man used his arms in wide, sweeping gestures that ended with a hand, sometimes both, pressed to his chest over his heart.

Others just stood around wearing T-shirts and handing out flyers.

The arm sweeper handed me a business card for a congressional candidate and thanked me for taking the time to vote, no matter who I cast it toward.

The volunteers inside instantly earned my respect. There was at least one woman and her husband I saw on the last Election Day.  They obviously care about the process. As a member of the military, I thought how often people thank me for my service. I wonder if anyone told these volunteers that today?

There were five volunteers and they all looked tired and as if they had put up with snippy people all day who were more concerned with getting to use their right to vote than they were about being fellow citizens in a country that was once again choosing it’s own future in the peaceful revolution we call elections.

So if you worked the polls today, thank-you; if you know someone who worked the polls thank them.  Maybe next year I’ll wear a t-shirt that says, “hug an election poll worker and thank them for their service.”

Beautiful paradox

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Some things have changed and others, well they’ve thankfully just gone along, as they should.

I graduated the Couch to 5K program and have done one run of 5 miles and couple 4-mile runs. I’ve also had a few bad days. I’ve pulled a couple of muscles and rolled an ankle but I’ve kept going. The up side to all of it is that I’ve lost well over 30 pounds and I’ve listened to the entire book of Matthew. I need to reload my ipod with another book. I still listen to praise music and I find my running is now the therapy for life’s little bumps. I can mentally throw down my frustrations and stomp them like a bug as I run on by.

Now, I’m getting into learning mode in other areas of life. Just after Christmas I began piano lessons. I also went to a school for military public affairs. I enrolled in an online course for my accreditation in public relations and am pretty sure I couldn’t pack much more into my life if I tried.  Shh, don’t tell anyone I said that or something will pop up to fill the last few moments of my evenings.

I decided I needed to grow professionally and personally. Piano is something I’ve always wanted to learn. I’ve learned saxophone, baritone, mellophone (a marching version of the next one), French horn, bass guitar and acoustic. But piano was the one I’d always dreamed of. 

The military course does have college credit and certification will help build my professional credentials.

But, even with all of that I always feel there is more I can do in my spiritual walk. I wonder if there will ever be a time I don’t think I should spend more time with God, more time in the Word or more time in service.  I pray not. I want to always be hungry for more and want to find myself constantly growing closer to God. At the same time, I know that I could do more of all of those things.  It is a beautiful paradox.  To always get more of God and to always want more.

Running the race -- or not.

For those who don't know, I started a running program. Yes, me. I have always hated to run and now, I'm doing it willingly and on purpose. Nothing is chasing me, and no one is testing my ability to remain in the Air Force, at least not today. The program is called Couch to 5K and works with walk/run intervals that change over the course of 9 weeks until you are running 30 minutes at a time.
I begin the 4th week tomorrow. 
Today is a rest day, and I took a nap after church. I woke up from my nap way later than I'd intended and looked at the clock -- 6:58. My groggy brain looked out the window and thought it was 6:58 am! I thought I was late for my Monday morning -- and for Week 4 Day 1! I was freaked! I didn't want to run in the South Texas heat but resigned myself. I figured I'd done it to myself not setting the alarm even on a holiday. Then, when my husband asked if I wanted coffee, I started thinking, "Gee, it's odd for him to get up before me in the morning. Even odder that he hadn't made the morning coffee since he's as addicted as I am." Then it hit me. It's still Sunday evening. I hadn't missed my run and I'm still on track with the program. And now, all is right again in my muddled, foggy-brain, post-nap world -- and I got my coffee!


On another area, spiritual fitness, the pastor challenged the church to start in the book of Matthew in the morning and read a chapter a day through the New Testament. I was pretty dedicated to listening to an audio Bible while I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 but have tapered down to reading much less. I think I will use my audio bible to begin my morning workouts. I will be exercising my spirit along with my body. I'll let you know how giving up my up-beat contemporary Christian music during the warm-up period goes with the training. I may have to use it during my cool-down stretch instead but I'm going to try it at the beginning first. I'd appreciate prayer as getting into shape physically is important to me but getting into spiritual shape is more valuable. For me, the two are tied together and I'm on a journey to become faithfully fit. 


I would love some feedback from you on ways you stay fit, both physically and spiritually. Have you found ways to tie the two together? Please share any tips that help you in either area.  

Take yourself out of the story, put the reader in it

Today, I read an article that tried hard to put some personality, in the form of emotion into a main character. Personality and emotion are important and help bring some life into a story. A common mistake is in telling the reader what that emotion is instead of showing it.

For example, the following sentence:

He showed pride in his work as he talked about it.

That's the writer’s opinion. By giving that opinion, the writer has now inserted himself into the story. In writing non-fiction features and news, this is a bad idea. It isn’t a very good idea for fiction either. This is for first person opinion pieces and thesis papers.

I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule. There always are. I won’t go into any of those but let's look at how to show the reader that pride instead of telling the reader about it.

Try this:

His shoulders lifted a little straighter as the soft-spoken man’s words came out steady and clear while he described the work he does. All the while, hands that had been down at his side (or in his pocket) punctuated the air as he pointed to the tools of his trade.

OK – this is longer but it also shows me his emotion without putting the writer in the story. That shows me his pride and allows me, as the reader to think what I want. I might think that the man knows his job and comes alive when he gets to talk about it.

You get the idea. Be observant. You can't make this stuff up later and expect it to be convincing. Record it as it happens. Use photos, voice recorders, whatever you can to help arm yourself with things to describe. Does your interview subject talk with their hands? Does his demeanor change? Show how. Look for the describable and write it. Leave drawing an emotional conclusion to the reader.

Here are some emotions and possible physical signs.

Fear – clasping hands, shaking, looking over the shoulder, voice lowering.

Excitement – rapid hand movements, eyes darting around to everyone rapidly, raised voice

Anger – voice volume, change in color (red faced – which can also be embarrassment or shyness) leaning forward, fisting hands. Narrowed eyes.

Watch for those things in your subject. Does your subject show signs that are unique? Those are great for putting the reader in front of the subject.

By showing your reader the emotion, you bring them into the story instead of yourself, and that is the goal isn’t it?

Share some ways you bring the reader into your scene. Would love to see examples and feedback on how you handle keeping yourself out of the story.

Treasure is...

There is a popular contemporary Christian song out right now that has a line that speaks straight to my heart. The song is called Forgiven, by Sanctus Real. The line goes, “When I don’t measure up to much in this life, Oh, I’m a treasure in the arms of Christ.”

It speaks to my heart because even when everything is fine, I can still find myself falling for the lie of negative self-talk. We all hear it. It’s that voice in our heads that tells us we aren’t good enough, we should or shouldn’t have said or done that or that we aren’t worthy of whatever we are striving for at that moment in our lives.

It’s all bunk. Sure, we aren’t good enough. We never will be and we don’t have to be. All we have to be is what we were made to be. A work in progress, a learner at the knee of one who knows us and loves us completely in all our inglorious, brokenness.
We fall for that lie when we start looking at ourselves through the eyes of the world. Those are sometimes really the eyes in our own minds that see others doing more, achieving more and living like we wish we were. Those are the eyes that we measure ourselves with and they are nearsighted. They can’t see where God is leading us or what the future holds. They expect us to have “arrived” by now. We don’t know where but you know it isn’t where we are. We try to act like we’ve reached that mythical place; like we are a success and can be defined by our possessions, titles or incomes. But those things won’t last and they tell nothing about the person we really are; nothing about our real value to the one who wrote the bluebook on humanity.
How wonderful it is when I can close those eyes and just be that treasure in the arms of Christ.

After I wrote this I read a blog post by Matt Hammitt on the song Forgiven.