Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson


My little sister found this poem and left it for me awhile ago. It's a really good poem, and I think is actually very true. Sometimes we're afraid to stand out, afraid to be too good, or to realize our full potential. It applies in all aspects of life, academics, church, etc. but I've found it especially significant in running. I know it sounds really weird, but for a little while during the cross country season I was afraid to win. I know, it makes no sense, but it's true. At the end of the race I couldn't every see myself getting up on my toes and finishing the race like one of the top runners, I subconsciously held myself back, I had placed the image of a top runner above myself as a seemingly unattainable goal. Luckily I've moved past that. I no longer go out to a race with the attitude of "racing to not lose" as my coach puts it. I race to win, to win for myself and my team.

A Few Words On President Bush

I was just reading a little article, which is what prompted this little post, but I just have a few words to say on our past President. Right now the world judges President Bush as a man who essentially ruined a nation. He took the nation into a war, and doubled the national deficit, and people believe he threw us into an economic recession which threatens to evolve into a second Great Depression. However, there is one outstanding fact that most people seem to skip over in their remarks on President Bush. Mainly that he protected this nation. It's almost as if people have forgotten what happened on 9/11, that our nation was in fact attacked by terrorists, and that many many people died. The war we have been involved in for the past years has been a war that has been determined to protect the American people, and those who lived under the oppression of those terrorists for so many years, his actions helped to free a nation. President Bush also made a rather striking statement which seems to throw all of his actions and their consequences into a perspective that it seems few people see he stated,

"As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe. "

So, even though Bush left office with such low approval ratings, his vow, promise, covenant, was to protect the people that despised him and wanted nothing more than for him to leave office to enter into an era of "change". Little did those people realize he was keeping them safe. I believe that history will judge President Bush a little differently than people do now. He is a man that did his best, under horrible circumstances, to protect the American people and ensure the free speech and liberties that we enjoy and that were so often used to belittle him and his position. Sure he made mistakes, as all Presidents do, but he did his best, he fulfilled his duty and protected the American people, and above all he was an integrous President, he stuck to his values and convictions, and he acted on what he believed was morally right, and in a world where morals seem to shift with the slightest breeze, well I think that's pretty impressive and noteworthy.

Charcoal Art

This is a charcoal drawing I did in Art class.

Las Floras

Sunset

This is just a teensy bit edited, but it was taken by my phone cus I didn't have a real camera handy, so I tried to get it closer to how my eyes actually saw it. But yeah, it's a bit edited.

A still lake

I had a sort of epiphany I guess you could call it on Sunday and I meant to post it before now but I kind of forgot...
Anyways on Sunday in church there was a talk where the speaker said something about how we can only hear the spirit when our hearts our still. Immediately the image of a still lake crossed my mind and I made this analogy. Our spirits and hearts are very much like a lake. At times it can be turbulent with speedboats, water skiers, and other such distractions distorting and disturbing the lake. These speedboats are the world and its influences acting upon our hearts. The spirit by contrast is a pebble. A pebble dropped into a lake creates small ripples that can clearly be seen on a still and placid lake. However, if the lake is disturbed by constant other outward influences it becomes nigh impossible to discern the spirit's ripples from all the other waves of the world. Thus in order to be most in tune with the spirit and be able to witness its ripples moving across and causing subtle changes in our hearts we must keep it calm and still, devoid of worldly influences that would seek to disrupt and overpower the still small voice of the spirit.
It's a basic principle, but I liked the analogy.
(the picture isn't mine by the way, it's off the internet)

"They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky"

I recently read a book called "They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky". It was written by three boys that lived in Sudan during the civil war that occurred between the Muslim governing nation and the opposing rebels. They were forced from their homes at early ages, somewhere around five years old, and the book tells the story of their trek across Sudan that lasted for many years as they tried to find some place where they could even hope to be safe. It's a really good book and I'd suggest that everyone read it, you'll gain further appreciation for America, and maybe know a little bit more about some of the things going on in the world.

My Apparent Addiction

My sister seems determined to associate running with an addiction. And in a way it's true. Just about everyone I know that has begun running has become almost instantly "addicted". It's something that "once you pop you just can't stop". There's no real way to explain why it is that people love the sport. I mean you can, but at the same time you can't. It's painful. You run and your body screams at you, your legs and lungs burn, and more often than not you throw up after a hard workout or race. Not something that most people would call enjoyable. Yet despite the pain we remain hooked on the sport. Some people may say it's the endorphins, but I can honestly say I've never felt the so called "runner's high". Yet I want to run, I want to run everyday and when I can't, or I'm not permitted to, it's really frustrating. Even if I'm only missing an easy workout, I genuinely miss it, and amazingly enough I miss the harder, more painful workouts, even more. So we run, we embrace the pain, and we keep going, maybe we really are addicted... It's something we do, and it has become a very very integral part of who I am, without running I don't know really what I'd do, or what kind of person I'd be, it's helped define me, and helped me discover in part who I am, and what kind of stuff I'm made of. So I guess you could say running is an addiction, but at least it's an addiction that makes the person better than they were before, at least I think it does. So give it a try, everybody's doing it :)