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Check out my new shop featuring custom eye charts, subway scrolls, and painted typographic sundries.
Plumpies made Kasey’s top 10 favorite posts over at the Nest blog today. Go by and check out the store and the new stock of Plumpies or order at http://www.etsy.com/shop/plumpies
What am I willing to give up?
We talk a lot about our sacrifices. “We give up having that house or that vacation etc. so my spouse can stay home with the kids.” It’s worth the reward. I feel like I have good priorities, but I was struck recently at how often I trade the truly rewarding for what’s easy.
Seth Godin made some great points in what he called “The taskmaster premium”
Hire a personal trainer to follow you around and give you instructions and that’s $70. Do publicity for an agency and precisely follow instructions, or do your own PR and earn many times more.
We happily give up our freedom and our income in exchange for having someone else take responsibility for telling us what to do next.
My friend Johnny related this to hearing God. During the Israelites exodus from Egypt they had the opportunity to be with God if they would just follow a few instructions. At their first encounter they told Moses they were afraid – “You hear God for us, and let us know what He says”.
It happened again when the nation of Israel asked God to give them a king like the other nations.
I Samuel 8:11-19…He will take your sons… He will take your daughters…he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves… He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage…he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, He will take a tenth of your sheep…Nevertheless …they said, “No, but we will have a king over us…”
Later, after experiencing the tearing of the veil, Followers retreated with the rise of the Roman Catholic Church. It wasn’t until Martin Luther, after studying the Word for himself, declared that we could experience God ourselves that we began to step up and go behind the veil again.
When asked how he prophesies like he does, Clark Whitten answered my friend Matt, “I just listen better than most people.” Moses got alone to hear God. Saul wouldn’t do it; he relied on Samuel. Look how he compared to David. Jesus did it. He went through more than anyone in order to do so, but he also had the greatest payoff of all time – for the joy set before him.
He said we would do even “greater things than these”. We shouldn’t give that up for anything. Let’s not settle for merely earning wages. There’s huge profit to be had if we’ll be willing to be the boss of our walk with God and do more than just show up. There is the great adventure, reward, and fulfillment from being with and getting direct revelation from God. Let’s not give up greatness for ease or comfort. We shouldn’t PAY so we can have a second hand relationship with God.
Cher - An unlikely topic
Two of the blogs that I frequent Sundance and thomasjstanley.com have recently posted on the topic of Cher. The first one I read is from the Sundance blog written by my Aunt Sara. Her blog covers many aspects of life from “…cooking, outdoors, friendship, gratitude, attitude, generosity, goal-setting, happy thoughts, simplicity, opinion, photo essays…” You name it! What I love about it is the lens she sees life through and the way she is purposeful about life. It bleeds through all of her topics without being the focus. The second article, Cher An Enduring Entrepreneur, is from Dr. Thomas J. Stanley the writer of the The Millionaire Next Door and many other books on the subject of the wealthy and pseudo-wealthy. His blog has a much narrower theme. I am highly inspired and motivated by these two writers and thought it was interesting that they both devoted a topic to Cher - someone not typically on my radar. So follow the links, enjoy, and add these two links to your favorites.
Creaturewords: An Album Review
The new EP, Creaturewords, from Patrick Schlabs is simply put a great album. This being my first stab at an album review comes from the standpoint of a friend and one who is somewhat biased. Being biased doesn’t mean that I think it is great because Patrick is one of my oldest friends (and ironically one of my youngest friends); it only means that I am writing about it at all. If it wasn’t both great and personally connected to me I would probably not be writing this. With that being said Creaturewords is definitely an album you should own.
I don’t know if it is because of time of year that this album was released, but my first thought while listening to this album was, “This will be in my Christmas rotation every year.” Really it’s just Two songs in particular. “Immanuel”, a song about the coming of Christ, is a perfect song for Advent, and “Join in the Chorus” calls us all together and creates, in my mind, pictures of singing together as carolers about the one who came to us. I have to clarify; this is not a holiday album, but no doubt aids in remembering the meaning of Christmas.
As a worship leader you won’t find many as firmly rooted in as sound a theology in both corporate and individual worship as Patrick. You know this if you’ve ever heard him lead worship, and it comes out in his writing. His songs are very well thought out while remaining deeply emotional and creative. Lyrically this album is both simple and profound holding to his philosophy. Where many might be tempted to hang on to a line of a song because of an emotional or aesthetic appeal, Patrick has clearly put in the time and effort to allow his values to shape each word of the songs until they match his standards. There are even a few occasions of allowing others, most notably Ryan Culwell, to help complete songs. There is a very poignant theme to this album stemming from A.W. Tozer’s writing on the subject of mere creatures trying to put words to worth of the Creator of the Universe. The album progresses incrementally, song by song revolving around this central theme and hinging on the title track “Creaturewords”. So, I stick up both of my thumbs for the lyrical content.
As for the music, this is Patrick’s forte. He gets it as few do. His shaping of songs seems effortless. Patrick has one of the best minds for production that I’ve seen and this album showcases it. Creaturewords has a folk feel with instances of a slide guitar, banjo, C3 organ, and accordion supporting Patrick’s masterful electric and acoustic guitar playing that I know and love. The guitar tones are noteworthy. The instrumentation is balanced and soulful. The melodies are accessible and memorable. The vocals are perfectly arranged and feature the indelible voice of Natalie Schlabs, his sister, and his wife Meg’s angelic harmonies. Any misgivings arisen by nepotism will be quickly erased upon hearing their addition. The music stands on its own, yet manages to play a supporting role to the song’s content which just can’t be ignored.
All six songs on Creaturewords are engaging, drawing the listener to participate and connect you with the subject. It is a great listen, and at $5.94 for the download, the album more than worth it. Sit down with a hot drink. Turn up the volume. Remember. Worship. Enjoy.
Marathon #2
I ran my second marathon last weekend. My first was in April. During training for the first I think I had more bad long runs than good. I missed tons of my midweek runs because my legs were still trashed from the weekend. Describing it sounds terrible though. It’s not a good reflection of how things went. I completely enjoyed the process – even the bad runs. I ran a 4:18. I finished feeling amazing. I felt like I could have done a little better, but mostly I was thrilled to have had a good run after a season of bad ones. It was an amazing experience, and much different than the last.
The second time around was completely different. Everything started falling into place. I finished my long runs, and I wasn’t stuck on the couch all weekend. I even mowed the yard after. I hardly missed any midweek runs, and I latched onto speed-work routine that really interested me. Yasso 800s. Originally, I was interested in breaking 4 hours, but the training method told me I was closer to a 3:35 time. Overall, I averaged 3:38, and my slowest one on my last week was 3:47. I could not see any way that I could maintain that pace for 26.2. It didn’t seem like it was translating into my long runs, but I had to try. I did not want to run a four hour marathon and feel like I had plenty left in the tank and regret not going faster. I knew there was a very real possibility of hitting the wall, but I decided it was better to try and fail than not try. But you never know what is around the next corner.
Starting a race is one of the most exciting things to be apart of, especially a big race. I’ve experienced it before and knew what to expect, I thought. The first mile was pretty typical. Then as we turned into some smaller roads and started spreading out a little I ran into a crowd of people just freaking out. Some were running off the road, jumping fences. Then I saw it. A train. We had come up to a railroad crossing and had to stop to wait for the train. That just knocked the wind out of everybody’s sails. I estimated that there were about 6,000 people stopped at the train crossing, and once we got to start again everybody was so packed into those little two lane streets you could hardly move. I was glad it was at the beginning when I was still fresh, but that was probably the turning point for the rest of the race. My time was off. Instead of just settling into my rhythm and going with it I tried to play catch-up. I was about two minutes behind at mile two. There was another thing I didn’t expect – running with good friend Matt. He was on the break 4:00 or bust bandwagon and had talked about a slower start and then kicking into gear for the middle section of the race. This was a very nice surprise to me. Early on in the run he said, “I’m with you ‘till the halfway mark, and then you’re on your own.” We steadily shaved off the time mile by mile. We both hit a PR for a half marathon in 1:53. I was just a few seconds off of my pace time at this point and we got to see the elites running back toward us. They were in the final miles of the race and were running with such apparent ease in a sprint pace that I could not maintain for ½ mile. I hoped that inspiration would be the little kick I needed to boost me through the second half as I anticipated the fulfillment of Matt’s prophecy.
Almost immediately after we crossed the half way mark we started to separate. Only it was me falling back and Matt pulling ahead. And that boost of inspiration from the elites was not reaching my legs. I had been telling myself that I would pull out of it at the top of the next hill or at the next mile marker I would get my second wind.
By mile 16 I had lost sight of Matt, and I was kicking myself for not taking a bathroom break before we started. I pulled off at the aid station for some relief. “This is a good thing”, I told myself. This little rest will get me going again, but even after the restI just couldn’t get back up to speed. Oh well, I knew this could happen.
I had recently read in a Seth Godin book this idea of “nostalgia for the future” and had been pondering it. You dream of how things will turn out. You create a fairytale in you mind with outcomes that are plausible – maybe even likely, but nothing is guaranteed. You can see how this can be destructive. Thankfully, I was prepared to miss the mark. As one ultra runner told me, “It’s hard to have a good day on race day”. I was prepared to settle for a 3:50 I just had to get the lead out and maintain a decent pace for the rest of the race. By mile 18 the leg cramps started. Then I walked again. At mile 20 I was 10 minutes off my pace and had settled for a sub 4:00. Then mile 22 came at me like a ton of bricks. I hit it, the infamous wall. I had already been going pretty slowly at this point, but suddenly I got the chills. I was shaking, and the tingling in my hands and feet took over my entire body. Everywhere there was a muscle was buzzing, even part of my nose and the tip of my tongue. This lasted for probably 30 minutes. It scared me. I was on the verge of delirious. I would get light headed; I could not shake the cold. I walked almost the entire final 4 miles. Around mile 24 a kind lady that had already finished and was watching, saw me walking with my arms inside my shirt and gave me the thermal blanket she received at the finish line. I trudged on huddled in that plastic wrap with its silver lining. Every so often I would grit my teeth and tell myself I could do this. I just had to be tough. I would jump into a little jog and it would be quickly squelched by my feet turning inward and my stiff legs refusing to bend as droves of people sailed by me, some walking. The Aid stations gave little relief. The sports drink seemed to just add to the chill. Every mile I was more and more glad that the spectators that had traveled with us, namely my wife, had not found me on this part of the course. Finally, at the final leg before the finish I was able to muster enough to get a little jog going. I ditched the blanket. I saw my wife and brother and his wife at the final turn. I almost lost it. I was so disappointed. I was embarrassed. I had been talking about this 3:45 for so long to finish almost a full hour behind. 4:34:48. But I finished.
I would do it differently if I had it to do again, but I don’t regret it. I did what I came to do. I didn’t get hurt. I gained some experience, and mostly had a great time with some of my favorite people.
I can’t say I would recommend someone take the route that I have because I want people to love their experience and continue in it. However, I don’t think a bad experience is the end or even something to be afraid of. For me, it is important to determine what I love about running and pursue that. For some, just getting out there and running is it. For many, it is the community. Then there’s the challenge, the feeling of being alive, the physical benefits, the micro-image of life. The list can go on, but you can’t leave out The Goal. For me the most important thing is the community. It’s a hobby my wife and I both enjoy and share together. I am fortunate to have some of the best friends on the planet, and running is a great excuse to spend time together. And having a goal is an excuse to go run. It keeps you moving forward when you feel like sleeping in or eating a whole bucket of ice-cream. You know they’re going to be standing on the curb at the set time, and you’ve got a distance that you can’t disrespect waiting for you. So I have short term and long term goals.
I decided I wanted to qualify for Boston at the finish line of my first Marathon. I shook my head at my naiveté at the finish of my second, but my goal is still there it just doesn’t have a timeframe attached to it now. And ultimately the goal of qualifying for Boston is just something to keep me running for the more important aspects of running. Those are the things that determined whether this was a bad experience or good. It was great.
Sarah’s plump little crocheted animals were featured on the Nest blog a while back. There are WAY more in the works and several available in her new Etsy shop - plumpies.etsy.com and of course at Nest.
Try Something You Hate; You Might Like It.
If you want to make people cringe mention running. It conjures up all kinds of negative thoughts. Knees. Lungs. Pain. Boredom. Waking up early. I was no different. My running experiences were pretty limited, but I hated running. Then early last spring I was talked into running the Race For the Hills 7K, a fundraiser benefitting the Jr League of Amarillo. I was working on their namesake construction project, and was obliged to participate. I wanted to want to, but I just hated running.
My brother had completed his first marathon a few months before that. That was something on my bucket list
