The Power of Now

I don't remember a time in the past dozen years or so when I wasn't busy ... often extremely, excessively, inordinantly busy for extended periods of time. Thankfully, I have a pretty high capacity for activity and I get to do volunteer work that I truly enjoy and thrive upon. The past year has been particularly full-to-overflowing and there have been many days when there is more on the list of things that must be done than there are hours in the day. But it's been a very rich and rewarding season filled with amazing opportunities to serve, so it hasn't been particularly stressful or overwhelming ... most of the time.

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How's Your Form?

Just before class began on a recent Tuesday evening, as everyone was getting their benches and weight bars set up for BodyPump, I looked up and noticed the woman in front of me. I gave her a mental nod and thought, “Wow! She’s strong!” as I observed the amount of weight she had on her bar for the warm-up. We got through the warm-up and moved on to squats. As I dropped the bar and switched to a holding a medium plate at my chest while doing squats, I was focused on my form and on following the pace the instructor was setting. Chest up, squat without leaning forward, thighs parallel to the floor, weight in your heels. Throughout the classes, the instructors coach us on how important good form is so we can get the most out of the exercises without hurting ourselves. I can’t say that I love squats, but I like how I feel after we finish them! They certainly do get the heart rate up and I can feel the work in my quads and glutes. As we transitioned to the chest track, I caught a glimpse of the woman in front of me again.

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Little Foxes

Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.” Song of Solomon 2:15 NKJV This reminder from Solomon could be applied in so many areas of our lives. As I look around, I am seeing how the little foxes in my life are tiny things that I have left undone. Instead of putting the clean sheets away in the linen closet, they sit on the cedar chest at the foot of our bed. A bag of trash sits at the top of the stairs waiting for someone to bring it down and out to the trash bin. The little hand-held vacuum lies on its side on the floor, just feet from where I sit, instead of being returned to the cupboard where it belongs.

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