Tag: God’s design

Thankful for Intervals

It’s time to begin again, and I am thankful for intervals. It sounds simple, but before my daughter, Amy, introduced me to interval training, I’d always trained by running straight through. Intervals are when you alternate running and walking. For example, you may run 60 seconds then walk 30 seconds and repeat until you have completed your distance. 

This actually helped me improve my time and go longer distances. The walking moments also provide a chance to take in the views better. Now, after a fairly long break, I’m starting running again and doing it with interval training.

Throwback pic – a family run (just missing Dave).

Life is full of intervals, too. There are seasons and rhythms, like day and night, by design. There are holidays that mark the moments throughout the year. I love that! May you grow through each interval and enjoy the views along the way. 

The moon.
My Mike finishing a 5K with a flourish.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

God’s design – following it leads to flourishing!

The End of Us?

It had to go. I was trying to figure out how. Multiple attempts with our 6 foot ladder and a garden hose were unsuccessful. Wasps were building a nest under the eave at the front of our house. I’ve heard stories of them burrowing through the walls of houses, so yes, it had to go.

See, there are plenty of other places for wasps to build their nests behind our house.

I suggested to my husband, Mike, that we borrow our neighbor’s tall ladder to take care of it. “That will be the end of us”, was his response. After I stopped laughing, we talked about the options.

A few days later I got a text from a neighbor friend while I was at work. It was a video of Mike reaching out the upstairs window with a borrowed power pressure attachment connected to our garden hose spraying down the nest. Mike told me that first he tried the tall ladder with a kind neighbor holding it. Then another neighbor came over and suggested the power washer.

My Mike relocating the wasps with help from neighbors.

This whole episode was another reminder that it is not good for man to be alone. We need each other, and that is fitting and part of God’s design. How’s your neighborhood? Maybe you can be the first to reach out, starting by introducing yourself to your neighbors. They just might become dear friends!

“…don’t go to your brother’s house in your time of calamity; better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.” (Proverbs 27:10b

We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.

                                                           – Henri Nouwen

Here are a few glimpses of the impact of neighbors near and far, one helped me finish quilts, some put on a wonderful local performance of The Sound of Music, and some in Montana saddled horses and led Dan (my son) and me on an amazing trail ride!