STRENGTH & FLEXIBILITY

My little Buca is the LIGHT in my life

"Cracks in our life is how the light gets in."

 Dr. John Briere

Becky's blog recently listed this quote from a conference she attended. 

For Hope Group last night we had a yoga instructor as a guest speaker, she taught breathing techniques that are helpful when one finds themselves amidst a panic attack or otherwise stressful situation. We also reviewed a few simple yoga poses that allow for meditation, strength and flexibility. That combo- Strength and Flexibility struck me with an almost literal impact. It's the most perfect combination of two characteristics that I desire to hone. In no way, shape or form have I ever considered myself as an emotionally "strong" person, and if you've ever met me... you are laughing out loud at the idea of me being flexible. It's practically an impossible feat. But I'm overwhelmingly intrigued by the the relationship these two attributes could cultivate in my daily life.

Here's my point-

The unexpected (challenges and blessings) in life force us to practice flexibility.

I believe it's in our times of flexibility that we find our hidden strength.

Flexibility creates time to allow enough space in our lives for the Grace of God to filter in. 

I'm trying to find strength and flexibility in the unexpected-ness that my life's journey is offering me right now. I'm loving it and I think I'll love it even more as my flexibility grows. 

EMMANUEL

Saturday morning I awoke to fluffy white snowflakes drifting around my world. Spring was blanketed by winter once again. The weather wouldn't be a factor in my race on this day, the cause was too great.
MOTHERS WITHOUT BORDERS and Give 'em 5 for children in Zambia.
Becky and I ran the 5K together and the weather held off for the exact 35 min it took us to complete the race. As soon as we crossed the line, the snow began to fall again. Each of us ran for a child in Zambia, their photo and story written on our number tag.

Emmanuel was the young boy whom I ran for on Saturday, here is his story:

"When Emmanuel was young, both of his parents died. He, along with his older brother Charles and his younger sister Exhilda, were brought by relatives to live with their grandfather. Unfortunately, this was not a safe environment for any of the children especially Exhilda. The home was filthy and the grandfather abused Exhilda. To add to these horrible circumstances, the children had to walk 3 miles every day to Bwafano (a charitable organization) where they were given their only meal. In 2006, Emmanuel, Charles and Exhilda came to the Mother's Without Borders Children's Resource Center to live. Emmanuel is now 8 years old and in grade 2. He is almost unrecognizable to those who met in in 2006. He is outgoing and loves to have fun - at times to the point of being mischievous. He is the youngest in his grade, but he is extremely clever."


This race event was one of the BEST events I've participated in. It will be an annual race and the cost is low with 100% of the proceeds going to Zambia to build homes. They were extremely organized, great hype and excitement at the start/finish line which included an archway of ballons, and rediculous amounts of delicious food after the 5K race. If you'd like to participate in donating to this awesome cause you can go HERE. And you better believe we'll be running again next year!

Mother's Without Borders was founded in response to the devastation being caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They address the needs of orphaned and abandoned children in a holist manner. The provide safe shelter, food, education, and access to caring adults who mentor, encourage, and love.

MY BOYFRIEND & SORTING LIFE OUT

My boyfriend finally arrived and he's uber handsome. We've been spending a little less time together than I had anticipated but we're getting to know each other and we're still working on trying to orient him to my past computer. So unfortunately I have no photo for this post, which I am well aware of how annoying that is. Too bad.
I've been reminiscing about Layla's adoption experience for an unknown reason. Maybe it's the time of year that we were going through such chaos 2 years ago, maybe it's the sign of spring and new life, a birth from mother nature of sorts. The majority of this reminiscing happens while I've been hard at work while elbow deep in the spring cleaning process. I've just been feeling the itch to clean, sort, organize and simplify. Something is in the air here, I just sense a change or an event approaching. I've been feeling this way for months. Maybe it's all in my crazy little noggin, there's a lot of stuff in there that makes zero sense. Either way, life needs to be in order and spring time is the best excuse to start the organization ball rolling. If not for any other reason than it makes summer more enjoyable to spend time doing fun adventures with the family instead of shuffling through piles of unnessesary item just to find that can of sunblock you knew you had.
So for me, it's not only time to sort out my container drawer, but it's time to sort out a little bit of life also.

MEDICAL TAPE - AND A NEW BOYFRIEND

I just can't take it anymore, my RSS feeder was about to explode and I have so many things to say. Mostly stupid, random musings that I'm sure most of you only feel obligated to read about. But none the less, I have a lot on my mind and I'm going bananas waiting for my new boyfriend to get here. Boyfriend = new computer. I think he needs a name. Any ideas?

It was loaded on the Fed"X" truck at 7:06 am and is en-route..... hmmm wonder where exactly it is at this very second?

As for my ex-boyfriend (poor old nameless computer) I've salvaged a few more days of use out of it by using medical tape to hold things in all the right places. Thus giving me momentary battery power and such.

It's thundering and raining out, a perfect day to sit on the couch and stare out the window whilst I await my new Knight in single pieced aluminum armor to arrive.

IT'S A GONNER

My haggard  computer used to be on the fritz. Now it's about one eulogy short of being cremated. It took me 1.5 hours 3.25 hours just to squeeze enough use out of it to get this post up. But don't fret my pets! A new one is in the mail. So in a matter of a few days I'll be back. For now, here's a recap on the weekend. Mormon Miami was awesome as usual. Conference rocked my world. I got a tan, Kday podium-ed at his race and won us a little cash-ola. I spent the winnings, and then some. We had a fabulous time and now I'm home yelling at my computer that shuts down every 1.5 minutes and takes about 15 min to re-boot. I have cleared my schedule this week and the weather is looking favorable. So off I go to enjoy. See you when my computers is on the up swing.

INNER CHILD

It goes without repeated mentioning the I am often the beneficiary of the lessons Becky and I plan for Hope Group. It also goes without saying that sometimes we focus on some pretty heavy stuff. Last Monday we instructed the group members to draw a picture of themselves as a child while holding the marker in their non-dominant hand. I decided to participate, intrigued by what my left hand might create.
Wowza, it was a doozy.

I was taken by the abundance of emotion that came out in my drawing. I'll spare you the dejected details of the photo but I chose to share the letter I wrote to my young inner child:

We all carry a lot of beliefs from our past. Some beliefs can weigh as heavy burdens and I instantly thought of my Buca baby. Life can be hard and I don't ever want her to feel the loneliness I was reflecting back on. More than anything I want her sweet spirit to feel understood, important, and her individuality celebrated. So I did what any other mother would do.... we ate cookies. Just me and the Buca and some seriously delicious sugar cookies from Cutler's.
Our little date was sublime. Just the two of us without any to do lists, phone calls, or a care for the calorie intake that was adding up quickly. We just ate cookies and drank in the experience. My cup runneth over.

Someone once said how do you spell LOVE?
T-I-M-E
I have set a very deliberate intention to make certain that Layla feels my love for her. She is all deserving of happy childhood memories. It's time to nurture both our inner children.
On the way out to the car after our delectible dessert, Buca gently patted my face and made the sweetest eye contact with me, as if to say... "thank you for taking time to enjoy me momma." I think my inner child said, "dito."

MY MR

Go HERE to see a local post on my one and only favorite Mr in the world. He's quite the stud.
And P.S please ignore the country music on the video, no our doing :)

Tomorrow a superb post if I do say so myself. And for the weekend, a trippity trip trip to St. G.
Peace Out.