Animal Friendly

I'm a bit obsessed with looking at what other people are buying when I go to the grocery store. I'll admit, I'm a bit judgemental. Sometimes I just want to yell out to the obese woman that all those diet meals and diet pop are not going to help you lose weight, but instead, try eating some carrots. So early Wednesday morning I noticed a chubby little girl with her mother in front of me waiting to check out. It looked like they were buying her school lunch, because all they had was a lunchable. She was looking at the cover of TIME magazine. On the cover was a picture of the oil spill.

This made me incredibly sad. What had we done to this girl? What have we done to her future? Here we are polluting both her world and her body.

All this has promoted me to become a vegetarian, except in matter of hospitality (Read Acts 10). Although, I won't be a strict vegetarian, if I want to buy meat it's going to have to be organic and hopefully local. I'm remembering the line from Food Inc, where he says that every time we go to the store and purchase something, it's like voting, so even though I have such a tight budget, I'm trying to buy one organic thing each time I go.

It's the small things that matter :)

26.2

"Nobody said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it."

Back in December I decided I wanted to start running again. But a 5K was too easy and I knew I would be frustrated if I trained for a half marathon and didn't beat my time. After two years off, I needed something different. So I decided to go all out and achieve one of my goals, the marathon.

After months of training, a knee injury, and lots of time on my bike, race day came.

My parents came up for the race. My father used to run when I very very little, so my mom have some experience of trying to find me on a race route. Saturday we went out for lunch, try curling, toured my church, and then ordered pizza and spent the evening in.

I have to say, I didn't have anxiety with all the other races. I slept alright. I think this might be because I live one mile from the starting line, so I knew traffic wasn't going to be a problem for us. Or maybe because I knew I was going to set a record no matter what I did. Or maybe because I just didn't care if I did fail, because I had tried. I dunno.

The start of the race was a 7am. It took me over 4 minutes to cross the starting line. There were that many people.

I decided I would try to run a 5 hour marathon, so I paced myself with the 5 hour team for the first 5 miles. Then I had to pee and that took a few minutes. My parents met me around mile 3 and then I saw them again around 8. My mom carried a bag with all the stuff I might want: extra socks, shoes, Vaseline, band aids, gu, etc. This was very helpful. I think it's what got me through the race, knowing I had support every 3-5 miles.

I ran pretty strong the first 13 miles. The marathoners and half marathoners run together for the first 12 miles. There were much more half marathoners and they would shout things like "3 more miles!" And I would go, "No, it's 16 more miles." At the split the halfers when left and I went right. Wow, that was something. Everything changed. The numbers thinned out and there were less people cheering.

The hardest part of the marathon I thought was between miles 16-19. Those four miles sucked. In my head I just wanted to get to 20. That was my goal. I wanted to get to what they call "The Wall." Apparently runner's hit a wall and just want to quit. This didn't happen to me. Running in 90% mental and I was mentally there the whole time. I wasn't trying to beat a certain time, I was just trying to finish, and this really helped.

At Mile 20 they had a big inflatable wall and there were 100s of people making a tunnel to run through and slap hands. I knew at 20 it was a new race.

There were more people cheering because we started to run downtown.

I walked a lot of this race. My IPOD playlist was set in a such a way that I had a fast song, then a slower song. So I'd run the fun songs, and relax during the slow. I highly recommend this.

At Mile 22 I listened to Journey's "Don't' Stop Believing."

At Mile 23 I thought "I only have a 5K left. If Anita can run a 5K, I can run one too." (How I found that logical after running 23 miles, I do not know).

At Mile 24 I started getting teary eyed. There were only 2 miles left, and really, what is 2 miles after you've ran 24. It's nothing.

At Mile 25 I decided I would dedicate my last mile to my sister, so I tried to run most of it.

When I got to Lambeau Field I still had enough energy to run around the entire football field. My IPod was really working for me because I was running to Todd Rudgren's Bang on the Drum.

Then as I made my way out of Lambeau, the Rocky song started playing. Somehow I had enough energy to kick it in and cross that finish line strong.

When I crossed I yelled, "I DID IT! I DID IT!" To which all the volunteers congratulated me and hugged me.

After I got my medal and t-shirt, and I met my parents and I started crying. I knew I would, because I cried when I ran my first 14 miles ever. I just kept saying, "I did it. I ran 26.2 miles."

I have never done anything like this. Sure, I've done a few halfs and they had prepared me for what to expect and I knew my needs pretty well. But the whole thing was incredible.

Am I nuts for thinking about doing this again next year?

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." -Prefontaine

Jesus Loves Hockey

Every morning I like to listen to the radio as I take my shower and get ready. I try to listen to the “pop” station to know what’s going on in music. It’s a work thing. What amazes me is that the DJs are older than me, yet still work for this station. I know they are older because the one DJ is always singing the oldies I listened to as a kid. But this post is not about old DJs.

One thing I love about radio is random facts. In the afternoon they always do the “this percentage of people blah, blah, blah…” Well, the other day the fact was something like this: “Couples who do this are happier than couples who don’t do this.”

And no, it’s not sex.

My thought was couples that cook and sit down for a meal.

This is also not true either.

The answer ended up being couples that go to sporting events.

Sporting events? Is this a joke? Does this mean that if you keep the man happy you are more likely to have a happy relationship?

Doubtful. I actually think it goes back to creation.

Tonight with my friend and I went to the Clark Cup USHL Championship game here in Green Bay. It was game 5 and we ended up getting cheap seats because the game ended up selling out. But still, it didn’t matter because we had a blast.

There is something about sporting events, and that something is…wait for it…COMMUNITY!

Sure, it’s not your Sunday worship or youth group getting together to serve at the local shelter. But it is complete strangers gathered for one soul purpose, to cheer on their local team. To share in the defeat and victory (and maybe watch a fight or two). There is just something about how the crowd claps together, how we do the YMCA together, how the music makes us want to jump! jump! It’s like a wedding almost. For one night we come together to celebrate our hope in this one team.

Tonight when the jumbo-tron called for more cowbell, I felt united with my fellow fans. I was part of something that was bigger than myself.

And this is what Christ has called us to do. Not go to hockey games, silly. Well, not exactly. But we are called to live in a community. We were created to live in harmony with each other and all the "critters." My favorite verse sums it all up, "it was not good for the man to be alone." We are called to be sisters and brothers. We are called to be the body of Christ and live as one.

And it’s time we get a little bit more confident in taking this idea outside the rink.

Food, INC: How do you reconnect and fix the earth?

Last night I watched Food Inc with Erik. It was really eye-opening, especially for someone who grew up in a farming community. I could understand someone living in the city not thinking about where their food comes from,but I grew up with friends who raised hogs and seeing my sister go off to de-tassel corn every year.

Once when driving through Iowa and Illinois Erik asked if he could eat the corn in the field. I knew he was just being silly, but still I answered, "No, most of the corn you see is feed corn." And he replied, "Where is the people corn?" That I didn't know. 18 years of living in this small farming community and all I knew about "people corn" was that our farmer friends usually gave us free bags of sweetcorn around July.

I could sum up the entire movie, and tell you all about the evils of the food industry, but I think you know, while you just don't know. Some of the stuff I learned was just amazing. How McDonald's changed the industry. Or how in Colorado you can't publicly say anything negative about the meat industry. Apparently the first amendment doesn't apply to your rights when you want to express your views on eating beef. I learned that Monsanto has a monopoly on the soybean seed. (Erik says they are the same company that invented Agent Orange.) That cows don't digest all that corn they are being fed. And you wouldn't believe the oil companies involvement in all this. Let's just say they are making a pretty penny by moving all that fed and food around.

I'm pretty concerned about being a conscience consumer. I know that our desire for cheaply made food is costing us our health and the lives of those in other countries. I know that eating fast food just helps pollute our earth a little more. (What I didn't know was how our illegal immigrant situation plays directly into this). I just didn't really know how bad it is and at whose benefit?

I recently re-read Rob Bell's Sex God (Read It!). The book talks about how sexuality is how we connect to each other, to God, and to the earth. We are definitely disconnected from everything. Sure, we have all this technology that God has given us the power to create, but are we really connecting? No. And because we are so disconnected from everything, we are polluting ourselves and our world. One of the points in the book talked about how we are so disconnected from earth (dirt) physically. Part of sexuality is being able to hold earth in your hands. Think about it. In Genesis 2 we are created from dirt. from earth. God breathes his breath/spirit into us. Then we are put into a garden to care for it. Our purpose was to care for this garden. And we blew it.

Because someone was curious.

Because somebody's helpmate just stood there and watched.

Because we became shameful and hid.

And the story is true because it shows how disconnected we become when we stray from our responsibilities

to God.

to the earth.

to each other.

And this gets me thinking about our food situation. If we aren't connected in anyway to what we put in our bodies on a daily basis, then why should we even care about who we share our bodies with?

Hello teen pregnancy.

STDs.

Abortion.

Brokenness.

Which brings us to the next part. Now what? How do we change the disconnections? Where does one start? (Especially one paying off tons of credit card (a disconnection from reality) and student loans.) How do you fix the earth on a budget?

Well, this is what I am doing now to connect to the earth and people. I recycle. I am biking whenever I can. It takes time, but I actually get to interact with people when I bike. I get to wave and say good morning to those out on their morning stroll. I save energy by unplugging everything I am not using. And I've started an organic container garden on my porch (called the Container Garden of Eden).

I'm planning on shopping at the Farmer's market when it starts in June. I love the farmer's market because you get to meet the grower and you get to walk around like it's a big festival every Saturday. My favorite part is when I get to walk around to see how much I can really get for a quarter. It's all about connecting.

My next step is to try to buy more organic foods. I think this will be pretty hard. I try to buy as few processed foods as possible. For health reasons I stick to the outside aisles of the supermarket. But I'm not sure I can afford to buy everything organic.

I don't eat meat. This started out as a single person/taste/cost thing, but now it will move beyond that. I just want my meat coming from happy cows. Maybe since I live in Wisconsin I will focus on supporting the local organic dairy farms. Each little bit helps.

If eating one small piece of fruit can totally disconnect us from everything, then why can't buying organic carrots at the farmer's market bring us back?

Gold Stars for Going Green

I was that kid, scratch that, I am that kid, who likes to earn stickers. I am just competitive. My parents taught me competition in sports and games, and for some reason I carried that over to the academic world, and into the rest of the world.

I'm always trying to do better than someone. More miles, more pounds, eating healthy, I love to achieve and I love to boast about it.

So it comes as no surprise that I have recently entered a competition with myself to see how many days I can go without driving my car. I suppose I talk about this often. But the hippie in me gets really pissed off every once in a while and decides I will no longer conform to this American life.

The oil spill got me going even more. I don't need your damn oil, I just need my pedal power.

On Earth day I listened to a program on NPR where a guy gave up his car for a year. I thought about it. Not completely possible for me; this is a somewhat rural place and public transportation sucks. But after hearing him I felt so guilty about driving my car. I'm perfectly capable of riding my bike to work, or walking to Target to pick up shampoo.

So I'm going to try better. Sure, it's about being green. But then it's also about saving money. And then it's about being healthy. But more importantly it's about taking time to slow down and enjoy life. It's about not being in a hurry anymore and noticing the smell of the flowers, the pelican diving for fish in the river, the doggie out for his morning walk, the sun rising in the East.

In the end it's about priorities and taking time to enjoy God's grand creation.

Don't Stop Believin'

For some reason I probably hear "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey at least 5 times a week, sometimes more. What is it about this song? I heard it on my way home from "work" tonight. Just the end of it. Being the dork I am, I thought, what if Jesus was singing this song.

Does Jesus not sing to the small town girl that is very lonely and just needs to flee to escape the emptiness of living in an area where no one understands? Is Jesus not with the boy from South Detroit wishing to escape from his poverty to a better life? What happens when you share a smile with a stranger? Have we not all searched in the night to find emotion?

We may work hard to find our fill, but salvation comes through faith. Some will win, some will lose, but only in this world. Or not. What does the judgment really mean?

If some were born to sing the blues, does God have a plan for all of us?

What feeling am I holding on to? The feeling you get when you feel this is all real?

Oh Streetlight people, those who have been oppressed and suffered in this world. Don't Stop believing. Hold fast to your faith, because justice will come.