Yesterday, as I stood among the reeds and the whistle of the wind and the softly falling rain,
I pondered the subject that I wouldn’t otherwise be so privy to this locale under differing circumstances.
Yesterday, as I listened to the song of the Mocking Bird and watched the Swans gracefully paddle across the pond,
I was filled with delight and awe at the splendor of God’s creation. “Just one more minute; I promise.
”
Yesterday was the day I first exerted so much effort, first gave my whole body as a living sacrifice,
And yet, gained much more than I bargained for in return.
Yesterday I died.
~Jonathan
April 26th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (5) · Tagged: Abstract Poetry, Blog
You shouldn’t have to be made to exercise. The human body wasn’t created for sedentarianism, yet so many of us live a life of lethargy and whine when things go wrong. I, for instance, have noticed an increasing occurrence of alarmingly low temperatures in my extremities. Right now I’m sporting wool socks, and it’s 60° out. But why? Why has the mean temperature of my feet and hands dropped so? Well, poor circulation is my analysis. I’ve simply spent too much time indoors, getting no exercise.
It hasn’t always been this way. There was a time when I could run a 10–K marathon without stopping, but now I highly doubt I could jog to the end of the street without getting winded. There was a time when I would warm up for my workout with 100 reps each of jump rope, pushups, and crunches; and then I got started on the heavy bag. Nowadays I might be able to do ten or twenty pushups. You see, our bodies are like a river: it takes great effort to go upstream, but if you quit you’ll find yourself in the next county in no time. It takes months to get into shape, but only days to get out of shape. I’m not speaking only of muscle strength, here. I’m mainly referring to wind capacity and cardiovascular ability.
Wind Capacity is a measure of how long a person can work their body with a given amount of pressure before they have to stop. It’s a function of efficiency: how efficient is your body at turning air into Oxygen and transporting that Oxygen to your blood stream; it’s not how much air your lungs can hold. Cardiovascular Ability is similar, in that it’s a measure of how much Oxygen-rich blood your heart can pump all the way to your extremities while you’re working, sufficient to keep your cells—particularly your muscles—supplied with a rich volume of Oxygen. Your heart being a muscle, it has to be worked out, too.
These two measures are the first to go, not muscle capacity. I could probably still bench press one time what I used to work out with, but I can’t run one tenth of the distance I used to run. But muscle strength falls, too, only slower. I’ve noticed that my mass has dropped; my muscles have atrophied. But that’s not my biggest concern. I don’t care to be a 1962 Arnold Schwarzenegger. But I do want to be healthy. I do want to look good for my hunny bunny when I find her. I do want to live a long, happy life on this earth. So I’ve decided to remedy the situation.
Tomorrow morning I’m going jogging. Not running; jogging. I’m going to start slow and build my way back up. And hopefully, this—along with the healthy diet I’ve adopted—will help me get back to being a better person. Because this body loves to work. Your body loves it, I say! When you work out you release endorphins: the happy drug. It makes you feel good to do something labor-intensive, especially when you get done. I’ll never forget the feeling I had after I crossed the finish line of my first two-mile run. It was a high that lasted for days! At that moment I became a running junkie; I needed my fix. And I aim to get back there, starting tomorrow morning as the day dawns.
~Jonathan
February 7th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (0) · Tagged: Blog, Running
Okay, so I’ve admitted to you that I don’t have any Christmas traditions, but rather we tend to shoot from the hip during the holidays. So I thought I’d share with you one of those impromptu jollies we did this year.
Now, if you know me very well, then you know we tend to lean more toward the healthy side, especially lately. So when I heard Katrina and Mom discussing the possibility of Sugar Cookies, I thought to myself, “No way am I eating tree-hugger Sugar Cookies; that’s just not right!”
So I inquired, “Are these going to be real Sugar Cookies, or some faux, wannabe, rabbit food cookies?”
“Nope,” they assured me. “These will be the real deal.” I’m talking Pillsbury here, people.
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December 28th, 2006 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (11) · Tagged: Blog
We’re not really a family of traditions. It seems that every year we just take the Holidays in stride. This method has seemed to work well for us, because there is not one year which I can remember that I didn’t enjoy. However, out of all the Christmases I can recall, this one is shaping up to be the best.
I’ve always been close to my Aunt Elsie, but especially so during the past four years. While I was in Brazil, my mom wrote me a few times. In one of her letters she told me that my Aunt Elsie had started working for our company and was living with them during the week. I was actually pretty excited to be going home so I could see her again. It had been too long.
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December 25th, 2006 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (13) · Tagged: Blog, Brazil, Missions
Just noticed that Patti got a new dog for the kids for Christmas. Her name is Buddy, because her kids adored the movie “Air Bud.”
~Jonathan
December 24th, 2006 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (3) · Tagged: Blog, Thailand
Burn this feed.
