Wisdom

Space Coast Marathon - Lose to win, Never give up, Never give in.

Thanksgiving - Day of Gratitude

May
every day
be
Thanksgiving.




Thanksgiving is a time when many families gather in gratitude, and sometimes in prayer.  Composed around the turn of the twentieth century, Walter Rauschenbusch, the theologian and Baptist social reformer’s words remain as beautiful and poignant today as they did a hundred years ago.

Thanksgiving Day Prayer
by Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)

For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thorn bush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

The following is from a segment on one of my favorite radio programs called “On Being”, hosted by Krista Tippett.  She is an angel.  Check it out at http://being.publicradio.org/

Our greatest failures become our greatest assets

Road blocks in our minds.

TIME = Things I Must Earn.

When I was in active alcoholism, I would count the days until the weekend or I would wish for fall or winter not to come.  I was always against time - counting it, distorting it. Hating it.  When I got sober, I counted sober days.  Everyone in prison, including the staff, count backwards until freedom.  In many ways, we are all doing time.  Today, Time equals things I must earn...it means I do not count time my way, but let time unfold.  I read the following meditation and love it:

Time

I recognize that there are two concepts of time. There is earth time, by which I structure my day and by which society operates, that is tied to three dimensions of space, time and circumstance and there is timeless time, or that state beyond time of simple beingness. Though I operate by earth time, I need not get stuck there. I always have access to another level of time through the quiet and stillness within me. Each day I will allow myself to be with timeless time.

I will spend time in eternity.

Physicists themselves are not consistent in how they employ these concepts. They may use one set of definitions in the laboratory but lapse back into the ideas of common sense when they leave the job. In spite of these uncertainties, I will refer... to two types of time: (1) the time of common sense (linear, flowing, external time; the time of progress, development, and history). and (2) the time that is alluded to in modern physics (nonflowing, nonlinear time; the "time of eternity"; the time in which things do not happen, but simply "are").
Larry Dossey, M.D.

Running for Reasons

World Championship Beach Marathon

 Tomorrow I will run the World Championship Beach Half Marathon in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  It will be my first long distance race on sand.  I plan to run in my barefoot shoes.  The most I have ever run in those shoes is 5 miles.  The Half Marathon will be 13.1 miles.  It will be my 9th marathon, half and full of the year.  Miami Marathon, Melbourne Marathon Relay, A1A Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon, Gasparilla Half Marathon, Miami Beach 13.1, Gulf Coast Half Marathon, Chicago Half Marathon, Atlanta 13.1, Halloweenathon, Beach Half Marathon, Space Coast Half Marathon and end with Palm Beaches Full Marathon - all to raise $11,000 for GUA Africa's Emma Academy - www.runfogguaafrica.com .

11-11-11

Yoga - Prayer and Meditation

An article from Fox News Latino, November 15, 2011:

YOGA PROGRAM IN MEXICAN PRISON HELPS BREAK CYCLE OF ADDICTION, VIOLENCE

Mexico City, Mexico – David Arellano Lara was sentenced to 11 years for car theft and kidnapping. In his Mexican prison, he dealt drugs and smoked pot and crack. But an innovative yoga program in prison designed to treat addicts proved to be his way out of addiction, out of jail and into a new life. He remembers being locked in a cell too small for the 20 men inside—some of the prison’s worst offenders—and teaching yoga to them all from the confines of his bunk.

If you train them and if you give them the tools, and you give them jobs in which they can give back to society, you actually close the energetic circle and what used to be the problem is now the solution. - Ann Moxey, a yoga instructor and psychologist

He remembers sharing what he knew from the yoga classes he had taken in jail before he was transferred to that crowded wing as a punishment for beating up more than a dozen guards in a crack-fueled rampage. He taught the other men simple asanas, meditation and pranayama breathing techniques to keep everyone calm.

“It was bit by bit,” he says about learning yoga and quitting drugs. “It’s a process in which you start to gain consciousness of yourself.”  In 2003, Ann Moxey, a yoga instructor and psychologist specializing in addictions, founded the yoga program in the Atlacholoaya federal prison in Cuernavaca, Morelos, south of Mexico City, where Arellano served seven years before getting out early on good behavior.

The program is called Parinaama Yoga.

The yoga programs have since spread. Today, yoga is taught in three juvenile jails and one adult prison in Mexico City and in adult detention facilities in the cities of San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara and Puebla.

Three years out of prison and two years drug-free, Arellano works a yoga instructor at one of the Mexico City juvenile jails. Moxey, meanwhile, has begun a teacher training program inside Atlacholoaya, and about 20 men have joined. “I wasn’t hopeful that he would make it, but he did,” she said, recalling that Arellano was “an extremely violent prisoner.”  She added: “If you train them and if you give them the tools, and you give them jobs in which they can give back to society, you actually close the energetic circle and what used to be the problem is now the solution.”

Substance abuse is a problem in Mexican prisons, where corrupt guards let drugs pass into the hands of gangs inside. That makes rehabilitation especially hard. Arellano says Moxey’s yoga classes helped him break his addictions and separate himself from a gang. “I started to see that there were other things in life—that not everything was violence, smoking and doing drugs,” he said.  Another former inmate and Moxey student, Fredy Díaz Arista, also teaches yoga in a juvenile detention center in Mexico’s capital. He said he feels “compelled to give back what was given to me.”  Both Arellano and Díaz say they often see themselves in the young men they teach, some of whom as teenagers are already addicts, dealers, thieves or assassins; some already have children of their own. Many, as Arellano says he was, are initially resistant to the idea of practicing yoga.

“Sometimes I see them, and I understand them,” Arellano said. “Hell, there is no problem, I tell them. Take it easy. Everything is going to be okay.”

Lauren Villagran is a freelance writer based in Mexico.
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Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/11/14/yoga-program-in-mexican-prison-helps-break-cycle-addiction-violence/#ixzz1dpC2ziOQ

Sunset Prayer.

November is the month of spirituality, of prayer and meditation.  This photo I took at sunset on St. Pete Beach as I concluded a meditation.  It was so beautiful.  Ten years ago, I would go to this location for a few cocktails and watch the sun go down.  Today, I pray for clarity. I ask God to show me truth - to see His vision for my life.  I pray that I will be illuminated by His light so that I may illuminate those around me.  I thank God for this world.  I thank God for this life and pray for peace and joy.  I pray that I may see God's hand in all aspects of my life and I pray for a grateful heart.

11-11-11 Test of My Resolve - Run 11 Miles, Cycle 11 Miles, and Run 11 Miles

Adventure - Big Goals!!!

This morning I rode the length of Gulf Boulevard from Passe-a-grille, St. Pete Beach, Florida to Clearwater, Florida - 24 miles north and back south again - 48 miles total.  It was something I always wanted to do.  Tomorrow for 11-11-11 I got the idea to run 11 miles and then cycle 11 miles and then run another 11 miles.  Why?  So that I can run for GUA Africa and so that I will never forget this day. Have big goals - "The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. - Joseph Campbell.

Fatih = Finding Answer in the Heart / Fear Ain't in this House

Adventure!

River CIty 10k Race

On November 1, 2008, I ran my very first race, the River City 5K race.  It was a Rotary Club sponsored event and I had never run any races before.  Less than a month from that race, I had been released from home confinement and was free.  A few days before I ran around Lake Eola four (4) times which I think was approximately 3 miles or 5 kilometers.  On the day of the 5K race, I started out as hard as I could and I do not remember if I walked at all, but I do remember being so hot and so tired that I swore I would "never do this again".  Once I finished, I was standing around with my parents and learned that I had come in 2nd in my age division - there were only 2 people in my age division.  I won a plaque! My first race and I won something.  It did not matter that I was really slow. I had won at something when I felt like a loser at everything. 

After that race, I ran the Turkey Trot 5k for Thanksgiving in downtown Orlando, Florida and then I ran the OUC 5k the first weekend of December and was given my first medal.  Some other people were going to run a half marathon which seemed incomprehensibly difficult for me.  I thought "Wow, I wonder if I could ever run so far."  The next year I did that OUC Half Marathon and it was my first half marathon.  One month later I ran the Disney Marathon, my first marathon. 

Yesterday, I ran the River City 10K for the 4th time and this is the first year that I did not win a plaque.  I was disappointed, but keeping things in perspective...this year alone, I earned the Miami Marathon medal, 7 half marathon medals, the Mount Everest Challenge medal, and the Miracle Miles 15k medal...it is about the race.  And I loved this run, perfect weather and I had energy for the whole race.  I lose to win.

2011 Run for GUA Africa - 11 Marathons - Lose to Win! Never Give Up! Never Give In!!

My goal for 2011 was run run 11 marathons to raise $11,000 for GUA Africa's Emma Academy in South Sudan by asking 1000 to donate $11 to the cause. Thirty days from today I will run the Palm Beaches Marathon and will complete my goal. From today until December 4, 2011, I will run the Beaches World Championships Half Marathon -11/19/11, the Space Coast Half Marathon - 11/27/11 and the Palm Beaches Full Marathon - 12/4/11.  So far I have gained 57 donors and $1,718.  I feel like I am failing again, but I need to remember that I never give up!  Emma Jal taught me to try, just try and try and never give up.  Today, I was training and wanted to quit so many times.  I ran 10 miles and just wanted to quit at each mile, but I did not.  The goal was met - it did not change my life or anyone else's, but had I quit, I would have felt terrible.  Today, I did what I said I was going to do.  That is good enough today.

The Roaring Lion Kills No Prey

The roaring lion kills no prey. - Nigerian proverb. Today, I don't waste my time roaring, whinning, or crying for that which I wish I had or wish were different. In my alcoholism, I would sit for hours and days and weeks wishing things were different. Today, I take action to make changes, always asking for divine guidance. Today, action means Any Change Toward Improving One's Nature. Today, I will do 12 things that improve my nature. 



Prayer is the answer to every problem

PRAYER - Prayer is the answer to every problem in Life. It puts us in tune with the divine wisdom which knows how to adjust everything perfectly.  So often we do not pray in certain situations because form our standpoint the outlook is hopeless.  But nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is so entangles that it cannot be remedied.  No human relation is too strained for God to bring reconciliation and understanding.  No habit is so deeply rooted that it cannot be overcome.  No one is so weak that they cannot be strong.  No one is so ill that they cannot be healed.  No mind is so dull that it cannot be made brilliant.  Whatever we need or desire, if we trust God, He will supply it.  If anything is causing worry or anxiety, let us stop rehearing the difficulty and trust God for healing, love and power.