Wherever you find Love it feels like Christmas

Merry Christmas friends. I know I haven't been updating this blog regularly, I've been otherwise writing occupied. But here is a quote from a blog I was reading today that I found poignant: 

"Check this out, and feel free to correct me if I get this wrong…

 According to Christians, Jesus taught a couple of interesting things. First, “love one another.” Second, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (“Her” being a woman who cheated on her man.)

 According to Buddhists, Buddha taught a couple of thought-provoking things. First, “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.” Second, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

 According to Hindus, a couple of fascinating teachings come to mind. First, “Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all.” (Krishna) Second, “Love means giving selflessly, excluding none and including all.” (Rama)

According to Muslims, Muhammad taught a couple interesting things as well. First, “A true Muslim is the one who does not defame or abuse others; but the truly righteous becomes a refuge for humankind, their lives and their properties.” Second, “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

 According to Judaism, their scriptures teach a couple remarkable things. First, “Love your neighbor like yourself.” Second, “Examine the contents, not the bottle.”

 The greatest spiritual leaders in history have all preached love for others as the basis for all happiness, and never did they accompany such mandates with a list of unlovable actions or deeds. They never said, love everybody except..." 

I am not familiar enough with all of those other religions to say whether or not the author is correctly representing their beliefs but he likes to be accurate and he hasn't recanted so I'm acting on the assumption he was correct. That's my disclaimer.

But here's my two cents: This Christmas and this New Year I want to make this idea my mantra: Not to love everybody except... No except. And I know I won't really be able to do it. I'll see injustice and I will be enraged. My pettiness will win and I'll throw uncalled for hatred and anger all over the place. But I'm going to do my best to cut the except out of my life and get beyond my own prejudices and judgments.

My Husband Wins

Joe's New Web Series

Parenthood

Joe and I often bandy about ideas of what kind of parents we'll be- terrible? awesome? too weird for words? Will our kids think we're super awesome or will they want to hide their friends from us?

But more seriously, we think about our stances in life and wonder if our kids will be like us. Will they like indie music and reading? Will they be into book clubs, improv, community art, etc? Who knows. But when I listened to this act of This American Life I found myself cracking up/being a little scared. Here's a mother who is so passionate about the rights of a woman to have an abortion and her daughter comes home spouting anti-abortion beliefs. The mom freaks out and starts immediately trying to change her kid's mind. And I thought, whoa, that could be me. Not on that issue but something. What if my kid was like, "Mom, art is stupid! And I hate books!" I would be like, "YOU LOVE BOOKS! YOU WILL READ BOOKS UNTIL YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND!!" Hahaha....

in law shenanigans via [the] facebook

I'm a Blum by marriage, obviously. Growing up I didn't really see or spend time with my extended family, which I don't say in a "ohhh how saaaaad" type way, I just say it to let anyone who may read this know that I never had interaction with uncles and aunts until I married into the Blum family. Now I have a plethora of hilarious ones that say things like this:

Scottposted toJohn 

Did you get the invisible birthday gift I sent?

about an hour ago ·  ·  · See friendship

• • 

    John:  Could you repeat the question, please? I had the Cone of Silence down.

In case you're wondering, I'm STILL laughing. 

I also had this interaction with my  brother in law via facebook which gave me a good chuckle. 

Me: just made the bed with great smelling sheets pulled off the clothes line and crunched on some fresh peas from the CSA. Now, power yoga and book club. Life is good. 

Zac:  Sara, sounds like you are a mix of my mom (sheets off the line), aunt mary (power yoga), aunt martha (csa box), and grandma (book club). probably not what you were going for but thought id let you know you for sure fit in the family.

To which his Aunt Martha responded:

Marti: I'm not sure you want to be like me & Aunt Mary. We are pretty nutty. I can't speak for Vanessa [Zac's mom] because she's much more sane than any of us.

I've been described as "nutty" a few times myself so I'll take it. Ah, good times on facebook.

• • 
    

My First Race

On June 4th I ran my first 5K :-O ! That little emoticon dude was pretty much the way my insides felt the entire week leading up to the event. The part of my mind that is sane and reasonable kept saying, "You've run 3 miles before, you can do this. Everything will be fine, your friends and family are going to be proud of you and this is for charity for heaven's sake! Get a grip spaz monkey!" However the illogical part of my brain was screaming "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! What's going to happen? What if I quit? What if it takes me a really long time to finish? What if the other runner's think I look silly? What am I going to wear? What should I eat before hand? What if I get a cramp? What if I get sick? What if I get trapped in a herd of people and can't escape? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!"  It was the italicized side of my thought process that seemed to win over my emotions most often and led me to drive Joe nearly mad with my outbursts of "I'm so NERVOUS" all week long. Bless his heart.

But I survived. I survived and I met my initial goals for this race- 1. No walking and 2. Finish in less than 30 minutes. *(a couple miles in I added 3. Do not vomit. I witnessed several people vomiting around me. Yuck.) I'm taking nothing but great feelings away from this experience. My friend Scott ran with me for the first 2 miles when my nerves were jangling terribly and both helped me navigate the crowds and kept me focused on his hilarious chatter and occasional bursts of songs. For the last 1.1 mile when I was on my own I got discouraged for a second and thought I was gonna stop and walk but I was able to reach inside somewhere and keep going. And, best of all, when I was approaching that finish line I saw my husband smiling at me and heard my friend Mandy cheering me on. I felt euphoric.  Everyone was so positive and encouraging, I didn't feel slow or lame or even average. I felt awesome. And really sweaty.

So my first race is in the books and it won't be my last. After the race was done and over the following day I realized something- I don't care anymore that I'm slower than a bunch of my friends and whoever else. I don't suck, I'm working hard and I'm having a good time. Running is something I literally never thought I could do and I did it! With lots of encouragement from the people around me, I did it. So, let me take a moment to be cheesy and thank Joe, Mandy, Mark and Danielle for being inspirational and really encouraging to a newbie; Scott for being my buddy for this race and my parents for treating me like I'm a rockstar for accomplishing this. Sorry, the cheesiness had to happen. It's my way.

I got up this morning with the eye of the tiger and finally conquered this stupid loop that had been giving me trouble the past couple weeks. Take that stupid loop! Take that dumb small hill that seems real tall! Take that lungs that sometimes wheeze and make me want to quit! Look out green lakes hill that I hate, you're next!

Group Centergy

I joined a gym a few weeks ago so I've been trying out some of the different classes to see what I like. I've decided that even though it kicks my butt, I love Power Yoga and so I'd been looking for something else similar that matches up with my schedule. Thus, Group Centergy on Sundays which is described as a class in which you "grow longer and stronger as you explore this 60 minute journey of yoga and Pilates movements." Journey is a good word for my first day visiting Group Centergy.

It began with catching the cool down for the previous class "Group Power". A male instructor was guiding the class through the cool down while intermittently singing along to the music (Coldplay, "Fix You"). It gave the strange impression of workout karoke whenever he would burst into song ("TEARS STREAM DOWN YOUR FAAAAACE AND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII") which made me look at the schedule posted outside the door so I could be certain to not take a class with him since I would certainly dissolve into hysterical laughter. Turns out, he's a sub so I have no idea who he is. I will just avoid all male instructors.

Karoke, I mean Group Power ended, and myself and a few others wandered in to spread out our yoga mats and stretch a little before class. Even though this was my first time I decided to be brave and sit near the front so I would have a good view of the instructor. Shortly after getting settled with my mat out and shoes off, a little woman, I would guess mid-60s, wandered over and spread out her mat right next to mine, almost overlapping. Anyone who has taken a yoga/pilates class, has a sense of personal space and/or common sense would know that two people can not possibly be that close to one another and not kick/hit each other repeatedly throughout the class. Unsure of what to do next, I stared at the woman who began chattering away about how she has a broken metatarsal and therefore will be wearing her shoes during class. I expressed my condolences as I eased off my mat and began slowly inching away. The whole time she maintained direct eye contact so I felt obliged to explain why I was shrinking away from her. In an effort to sound nice I explained I was going to move over so I could see the instructor more easily. She then replied that I'd better move since I had taken her spot and that was her spot and she was certainly not going to move. I did not burst out laughing (+1 Sara) and instead apologized for taking her spot. Which I will never do again. Ever.

Class was somewhat confusing, especially since we had a substitute instructor who didn't always seem 100% sure of what was going to happen next. At the end of class she approached me (she knew it was my first time as she had all newbies raise their hands before we started) and asked where she had seen me before. I said nowhere that I knew of and she insisted that I had taken her NIA (don't even ask) class. Nope. Haven't. Don't plan to. Then she told me that she hadn't noticed any mistakes during class when she was watching me except that I should really try to step my foot all the way forward to between my hands when coming out of down dog into the lunge. I said thank you for the critique, smiled and went about rolling up my mat. She hovered. I looked up and, uncertain of what to do, just kept awkwardly smiling. She said, "is there anything else I can help you with?" I had no idea how to answer that question so I panicked a little. Should there be? Didn't she just tell me I didn't make any mistakes? What would I need help with? I said, "umm... no I... don't think so... is there?" and she said, "any poses you want help with?" More panic. "Umm... I... I don't really know... is there?" She had no answer. I had no answer. We left it at that. Awkward.

This will not be the end. I'll prolly give Group Centergy another shot sometime and see what it's like with the regular instructor. At least I will know not to take that woman's spot next time.

A Magic Moment on the Sidewalk

We knew as soon as we locked eyes that our connection was something special. I managed to keep my cool and walk casually towards him, but he abandoned all decorum and rushed towards me with tail held aloft and amber eyes gleaming. We had a few golden moments there on the sunny sidewalk as I stroked his gray fur and cooed "you're a pretty boy, you're such a pretty boy" and he purred like a propeller. But, alas, the moment had to end. I explained to him that I had a [deathly allergic] husband and our relationship had no future. We would just have to cherish this time, hold it in our hearts and carry on with our lives. When I straightened up to keep walking home, he froze in shock. The hurt and confusion emanating from his eyes was palpable. I assured him once more that this was not a fling, it was simply a connection that wasn't met to be. Resolutely, I squared my shoulders and walked away, only turning once to look back. He remained frozen in shock, paws in the process of walking forward to rub against my leg when I had delivered the news. This is the picture of him I will carry with me until the day we might once again meet on a sun-drenched sidewalk.