My JourKNEE Back

 The weather was not in my favor this week. It snowed quite a bit a week ago, for most of the day on Sunday. The temperatures were close to 0° Fahrenheit with real feels reaching as low as -16°. These frigid temperatures allowed for the snow to stick around longer, melting a bit during the sunniest part of the day only to refreeze in the evening and overnight. Roads and sidewalks were messy. On two of my running days, I decided to stay inside and use our Walking Pad. If you know me well, you know that I despise the treadmill. While I was thankful to have this option, it does not give the same feeling as outdoor miles. Therefore, despite the cold, I decided to venture outside on the other two running days. I had to be careful. I slowly had to navigate around the mess of the snow and ice. There were times that I had to hold back and keep my stride shorter than usual as to not slip and fall on my back.  Relationships are messy. All relationships. Even in family relationships, the...

 Years ago, we started a tradition of adding memories to a jar which is then opened in the new year as a reminder of what happened throughout the previous year. Due to a snowy Sunday here in Pennsylvania, and being "stuck" inside, we got around to reading the memories from 2024. This memory from February 8, 2024, was read; "Mom went back to L.O.G. [Lancaster Orthopedic Group] with pain in her right leg. There is a possible lateral meniscus tear. Treatment will begin with five to six weeks of PT. If no improvement, an MRI will be ordered. He highly recommended no running. It was hard news to hear. God is in control always and in all things."  This news is actually what prompted me to begin this blog. I had no idea how PT was going to go. Was it really going to be the end of my running years? If you have been along on my journey so far, you know that the first PT didn't go so well. That's when I switched running for riding bike. Even walking at a faster speed ...

In the last blog post, I put in writing that I will choose one song a week to start my day. The goal of this is to begin my day with focus on God. My chosen song of the week was "Nothing Else" (Songwriters: Cody Carnes/ Hank Bentley/ Jessie Parker Early).  "I'm caught up in Your presence  I just wanna sit here at Your feet  I'm caught up in this holy moment  I never wanna leave."  We wake up, start our day with worship and a time of devotion. We feel like we have spent time in the presence of God and our hearts are feeling joyful until we make breakfast, spill our coffee on our carefully selected outfit and sprinkle Cajun seasoning on our toast instead of Cinnamon (almost happened, but luckily, I caught it in time - phew!). Our mood shifts quickly, and we no longer feel joy or that God is near to us. How can we get to a place in our lives where this desire to be caught up in the presence of God becomes a daily reality in our lives, and one that follows us th...

                                                                                                                                ** We skipped right over Thanksgiving and Christmas and flew swiftly into the new year. Happy 2025! New years are new beginnings. They are usually the time people look ahead with new vision, perhaps evaluating the progress of old goals and setting new ones. I, personally, do not make resolutions. I am fully aware of the statistics. "According to Forbes Health, '80% of New Year's resolutions are abandoned by February'." "Fortune calls the second Friday in January 'Quitter's Day' because that's when people are most likely to give up on their resolut...