Running

On Thursday afternoon, I got back from a nice long run in the 60 degree plus weather and felt refreshed. I plunked myself down on the floor for a little stretching when I heard a faint knock at my door. My neighbor and her mother were at my front door asking if I'd seen her daughter. My neighbor speaks in broken English and her mother speaks no English at all. Her eyes say a lot though.

Breathless neighbor: Eh, have you a-seen Stay-phan-ee
Me: No
Breathless neighbor: I was on the phone....ten minute...she gone

I got it. I grabbed my keys and headed out the front door with my neighbor. Her husband was already getting in the car to go search for his daughter.

I got a sick feeling in my stomach as my neighbor and I rounded the corner at the end of our street. I had heard a child screaming fifteen minutes before, screaming I thought, in a playing way; the way a kid would on the first warm day of the year. My mind started to play news stories of crazy inhumane things that happen to kids playing out in the yard.

My neighbor started to jog and then run and I felt tears in my eyes. Minutes before I had been running along listening to Paolo Nutini on my IPod and now I was running like a mad woman to find a small child. The stark differences in my motivation for running struck me.

For whatever reason at that moment I thought of God. This is probably what God feels like each time he feels like we're lost. Each time we encounter danger or temptation. Each time he feels like he might have lost us. And when he finally finds us, he finds us in a place where he may be the only person who can hear us, he hears our voice when no one else can.

I've only known my neighbor for a few short months and I ran like I was running after my own child. I can't imagine the feeling of dread and horror my neighbor was feeling as she ran after her only beloved child.

It reminds me of this verse:

"Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn't he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn't want to lose even one of these simple believers. " Matthew 18:13

It turns out my neighbor had rollerbladed over to another neighbor's house without her mother's permission. As we rounded the corner, I couldn't see the little girl. I didn't notice anything. But the mother heard the sound of her daughter's voice and ran to her to save her.

In that moment, I didn't hear anything. Not a sound.

Things That Make Me Wanna Puke

1. mandates for schools and education without funding
2. teenagers joyfully watching people getting beat up on YouTube (in a church lobby...it's a long story)
3. knowing our friends (a nice couple with a small baby) were robbed while they were sleeping
4. listening while Mr. Pete projectile puked all over our bathroom (he has a stomach virus)
5. cleaning up said vomit (you really shouldn't have to clean up your own puke when you're sick if you can help it, right?)
6. my inability to spell at the age of 28
7. when people ask me when I'm going to have a baby and gesture at my belly
8. having a teenager say "I ain't disrespecting you" in a disrespectful way
9. gas prices
10. watching Eliot Spitzer's wife's face and thinking about how his daughters must feel

Guns

Read Will Okun's latest post titled "Guns".

Some things to write about

I don't really have a real reason for posting this. I'm baking some other posts in my mind right now. So...
My favorite food: Morning Star (fake) Bacon and Avocado on toasted whole wheat
My favorite song ever: Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin
My favorite song this year: anything new by Mary J. Blige
My favorite person to fight: obnoxious teenagers who think they know everything
My favorite obsession: preventing chapped hands
My favorite restaurant: Baba India
My favorite place to visit: anywhere my girls are
My favorite TV show of all time: Dawson's Creek
TV show right now: I'll be honest...I listen to NPR and hardly watch TV anymore
My favorite color: baby blue
My favorite website: amazon.com
My favorite person to laugh with: Megan Foley because her laugh is infectious
My favorite sport to play: none...but I love to run
My favorite movie: Amelie (a french film)
My favorite holiday: Easter at my grandparents house
My favorite candy: Twizzlers OR Wild Oats dark chocolate truffles
My favorite dead Beatle: I don't have one
My favorite last name of all my friends: Blank
My favorite first name of all of my friends: Manon or Martha
My favorite grocery store: Sunshine
My favorite engineer: Mr. Pete
My favorite indulgence: wine and sushi or pedicures
My favorite snack: Peanut butter and apples

On repeat in my car: The Wicked Soundtrack
My "default" shoes: Dansko professional clogs (flip flops coming soon)
Strangest Pet Peeve(s): When people talk through the checkout on their cellphones, chewing or slurping noises
Weakness: fear, reading blogs for too long
Strange Fears: dark closets, MRSA
Great Quest: at the moment finding a coffee table...then I will continue my great quest for truth
Something I wish I knew when I was younger: parents are supposed to be imperfect
Something I hope to learn soon: How to be confident in my own skin
Dream job: part time barista, part time educational consultant

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