Barometric Pressure

This Barometric Pressure shift is really messing with my head today... literally.

I called in to work to tell them I'd be going in late today.

And I was completely genuine when I said that my head was pounding. I took some medicine and went to lay back down, hoping that would help a bit, and then I'd go in at lunchtime.

So I lay back in bed, trying to go to sleep (it's always sooo much harder when you're fighting one of these splitting AND throbbing headaches. Double whammy. Be still my heart. *sigh).

As you can tell from the fact that I'm writing a blog right now, I am not able to sleep. My head is ssllooowwwwllly feeling better, but something even bigger happened. I'm being 100% vulnerable with you guys today (like I'm not usually?! Ha). I was trying to think about something... anything to get my mind off of the pain so that I could sleep and it would go away. Sounds like a good enough plan, right?!

Yeah. God thought so, too.

He knew it would happen. He knows how I tick. He knows what happens when the barometric pressure drops or raises (whatever it is, today) and my head starts running the show. He knows what my usual plan is to make the day bearable again, and he knew it would happen today. Right?! Right.

I started (don't even remember it getting there, actually, but grateful that it did, to be honest) thinking about running. I think it was because today is a running day for me (this evening, anyways), and how I'm meeting a girlfriend for dinner, so it'll be a late run, and possible hard to do since it's supposed to rain and/or I'll have just eaten... blah blah blah. It doesn't matter, really. But here's what does -

As I sat there thinking about my training for this 1/2 marathon in December and how it benefits a foundation which would find a cure and/or treatment(s) for a disease... I began thinking about all of the other races out there.

In that moment, I felt God directing me. And I felt it so strongly that I started to cry.

I still keep welling up, even as I write this post. I sat. I googled. And after seeing that there are similar events, but nothing quite like it, I just knew...

Now, I don't have all of the details or logistics, yet. I don't have a clue how it'll work or when it'll happen. All I know is this:

Through God's grace, I am going to organize a race.

Ideally, it will mix a 5k, 10k, 1/2 and full marathon, so that anyone with any and all background in running/walking - rolling, for that matter - can participate.

And every bit of the money raised will go to building water wells in 3rd world countries.

As I lay there thinking about how I would need to hydrate at the right time for my run tonight, and then what hydrating would be like during the race. My mind wandered to people that don't have water. And then it wandered to people that have to walk a marathon or more just to get to water... water that may or may not even be clean...

My heart just broke.

How silly am I? I'll tell you: I am a self-proclaimed water snob. I don't like Deer Park because, to me, it tastes peppery. I don't like Dasani because, well, it tastes like chemicals. I'm fine with most, but not all, tap water and I prefer the water from my Pur water filter at home...

???

How much more of a selfish, spoiled little ungrateful girl can I be?!?! I'll probably still prefer water this way. But honestly, AT LEAST I HAVE CLEAN WATER available at my FINGERTIPS pretty much any time I want it.

I'm not saying any of this to sound holier than thou or anything - this was a very very personal conviction. Well, less of a conviction, really, and more of an appreciation for my American comforts, all while there are people that still die of dehydration.

That sounds so... Hollywood 'Sahara Desert", doesn't it? Or so "Oregon Trail"...

But it's true.

And it breaks God's heart to see some of his people living so comfortably, all while some of his children SUFFER just because there in another part of the world... and world which, in it's entirety, was created by his own hand.

I won't sit here and say that he looks down on us for that. I don't believe that. But what is wrong with us, as Christians... Heck - as a human race - if we just sit back and do nothing with something so simple?!

This is true for any and every sadness in this world, really: Human trafficking. Slavery. Drug smuggling and addiction. Terrorism. Abuse. Neglect. Corrupt government. Greed. Gluttony. The fact that the porn industry is one of the most successful. I could go on for quite some time, unfortunately, but this just isn't the point.

How hard could it be to give clean water to a village. We have the capabilities. We have the technology. We have the manpower and the resources. I mean... water is one of the most abundant resources on earth, and yet people grow ill and die because it's out of their reach.

So I've done just a little bit of research in the past hour (Trust me, there will be MUCH more done), but here's what I found from one reputable organization that helps collect money to build wells... in Africa, specifically (for the record... I want to even go beyond Africa, but this is a huge starting point, and there is a HUGE need there):

"Every day, nearly 4,000 children die as a result of drinking unsafe water. Every 22 seconds a child perishes from waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. Six million people are blind as a result of contaminated water and bacteria. Please help bring safe, clean water to children and families across Africa.

To give water is to give life. Clean water can cut a community’s child mortality rate in half. It means food for families whose crops are failing due to drought. It saves livestock. It gives parents a powerful way to improve the health, hygiene, and well-being of their children, and enable them to reach their God-given potential.

Your gift will help us dig wells to bring safe, clean water to thousands. You can also help provide purification equipment to treat contaminated water, and water storage containers to save fresh rainwater for later use. And, most importantly, your gift will help improve children’s health with sanitation systems that keep water sources clean.

No other gift produces a more dramatic effect on life than clean water and sanitation. You can help wash away suffering by providing access to one of life’s most precious resources..."

Can you believe that? Look at that first paragraph again: 4,000 children a day. Every 22 seconds!! That is just gut-wrenching.

And read those diseases again - typhoid, cholera, dysentery. The only thing I know about those illnesses is that your eldest daughter in Oregon Trail almost always die from something like that... or diarrhea. But I have don't even have any idea what that looks like, much less what it feels like or how rough it can be on the body of a child.

Well, that's that. This is what's on my heart, right now. I just talked to McStudly about it and I'm snotting like a baby, again.

Wow. Even with all of the crying and blubbering... my head feels a lot better.

So here's what I need from you guys:

#1 - your opinion. Do you think it's something people would do? I mean, with God ALL ALL ALL things are possible, but I'm being a silly little girl and wondering if people will do it.

#2 - your voice. I want TONS of opinions, here. I want to hear from people who run and people who don't even walk more than to the mailbox. I want to know if this is a cause they'd push themselves for. So do me a favor - spread the word about this and encourage other people to comment, as well.

#3 - your experience. Have you ever started your own race before? Do you know someone who has? Have you ever been part of a "1st" race before?

#4 - your suggestions. I was thinking it'd be super cool to have the race somehow involve Embassy row in DC, but the realist in me knows that probably couldn't happen. But who knows, right?! Are there any other locations that you think would be awesome? Maybe starting and finishing the race in Baltimore at the World Trade Center in the Harbor would be awesome. Ideas, people... give me ideas!

#5 - your support. I know this is a huge feat. I need lots of prayer. Tons of encouragement, and a whole Whole WHOLE love of accountability. Ask me about it. Challenge me. Call me out on other posts. Remind me what God's placed on my heart and don't let me get caught up or distracted by little petty things, but keep me focused.

#6 - your help. This could be monetarily as we move closer to the race. This could be signing up and running it with us. This could be cheering us on through the process or on the sidelines of the race... handing out water and goodies to the runners.

Anywhere you can help, I'd be GREATly appreciative. I do still plan to run the 1/2 marathon in December, if I can, to benefit Crohns' and Colitis. It's still something near to me and my husband, since he was diagnosed last June. But even beyond running, I'll get to see that a race of this size is like and how it's organized. I may even get to make a few contacts while I'm there? At least that's what I'm hoping. So continue to pray for us with regard to that race, as well. We need to race a good amount of money and will need a lot of support and encouragement through the training... and we can always use prayer - can't get enough of it!

You'll see a little link or some "Donate" button action in the coming months, so help us spread the word when that pops up. the less stressed we are on raising funds for this race, then the more I can focus on preparing, planning, and organizing the Race for Water (I'm not sure if that's what we'll be calling it, yet, but we'll get to those details later, eh?!).

I pray that God will provide every single cent, and then some for this race in December, as I know he can. And then for the Race for Water, he'll continue to provide: Every single runner. Every single penny through fundraising. Every cup of water needed for the race, and thus every drop of water through a well to villages and countries in need around the world.

Today, I'm thinking God for shifting Barometric Pressure... just remind me of that the next time I complain about a headache, will ya?!

Guilty as ALL get out

We're all guilty of it. Even though it comes in different forms, and even makes TOTAL sense, sometimes... that doesn't make it right. Right?! But it's just so natural. It happens without our even realizing it. And who can stop that? We still hold ourselves responsible, but it's just - we have the wrong aim. It's not us, it's them. What works for them doesn't work for everyone.

That line was advice given to us when McStudly and I were engaged. He met with a friend of ours and they had a good talk... about everything, pretty much. And it was nice. I don't know about all of it - it was guy talk. We women are only privied to some of it. But nonetheless, it was a great piece of advice. When he said it, he meant it for our relationship. It was pretty much about how you may look at other couples and things seem great, like they've got it all together. And where that may be true, you can't just try doing what they do in order to get your relationship to that level. Because what works for them may not work for you. And that's SO true!

But I woke up this morning realizing that we ALL so it, in one way, shape, or form. We ALL tend to look at someone and say 'they've got this right' or 'I really like they way they do that' or whatever. And that's all fine and well. But just because it works for them, doesn't mean it works for you. You aren't them!


I'm not making much sense, here (what else is new?!).


I have a tendency to do this to myself a LOT. For example, I listen to these great artists that I love, and I think 'I should make my music sound like this' or 'this look is really great', but that's not how it should be. It's fine to gain inspiration, and ideas, etc, but I'm NOT them! So why on EARTH should I try to model my music or life, even, after these people who were called to be that when I'm MADE to be something COMPLETELY different!

One of the Pastor's Wives at our church spoke a while back about being MADE. Got took the time to make us. To shape us. To detail us in the best way for our purpose. He doesn't make mistakes. So then WHY WHY WHY do I always try to change what and who I am? Improving myself, now that's a given, but I look the way I look for a reason. I sound the way I sound for a reason. I have the passions that and the drive that I have for a reason, and I need to stop trying to form them into what I think would be better. Because it WON'T be better. It'll be worse, because then I won't be who GOD made me to be, I'd be who I'm trying to shove myself into being.

I'm made to fill one certain space in this puzzle, and instead of just going there and piecing it together, I'm trying to JAM myself into this other spot WAY on the other side of the puzzle. And who wants green grass in their blue sky? I mean... doing this would only mess up the puzzle, right?! Not make it better!


So why do we do it? Why do I do it? Because I'm human and I'm stupid. But that's no excuse, because I need to get past this. It's going to be SO hard, because it's a habit of - oh - about 23 years! But I need to do it. Otherwise, what's the point?


If I can't accept the fact that God made me different to REMAIN different, then I'm a loser. And beyond accepting it, I need to pipe down and put it to good use! I need to stop fashioning myself to look/sound like others and just be ME in the way I was intended to be.





Am I the ONLY one that can see this in my life? Seriously?!