Ragnar Relay #2

I ran another Ragnar Relay this past weekend. We began at 11:00 a.m. in Prescott on Friday and ended around 2:30 p.m. in Tempe on Saturday after 204 grueling miles, little sleep, and lots of fun. I was in the same van as Nick Jr as well as three of his sisters-in-laws. The other van had six team members, all clients of Nick's. We only had five team members because Nick ran double legs for a total of 34 miles! I ran 16+ miles. My first leg was 5.3,miles, then ran 7.4 miles from 12:30 to 2:00 a.m. (dark, dark, dark), and the third leg was only 3.5 miles.

But my time has improved! My pace was 9:40. 11:11, and 10:22. I was the slowest one on the team, but no one yelled at me, in fact they were very nice.

Nick is stretching after running a very difficult section of the race. Sorry to show him without his shirt, but I wanted you to see how we painted the van. Those are heartbeats because his company is Durapulse and also the name of our team.

This little bunny went on the whole trip with us; the other van had one, too, so we could tell which vans were ours. There were over 350 teams so you can imagine how many vehicles at the exchanges, but what a party!

Running hurts and I'll be the first to admit it. But what it does for me far outweighs the momentary pain I feel the first mile. I feel so blessed to have been led to something where I can feel this personal sense of accomplishment. I have learned to keep pushing myself even though at times I just want to quit. And believe me, it computes in to life's races as well.

Take Care of Your Mental Health

The subject of mental health has been on my mind (no pun intended) a lot lately. I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to say, but I feel there could be someone who reads my blogs that may need to think about this subject either for themselves or for a loved one.

There are many grades or levels of mental illness from slight to very severe. I am no expert, but I do know a little bit about clinical depression because a member of my family suffers from this, and it is debilitating. Just like the ad says, "it hurts, it hurts everyone."

What are you doing for your mental health? Let's face it life can "suck" some days (sorry for the expletive) but it's what you do with those days that matters. I do not discount chemical imbalances nor make light of this very real condition, but I believe people can learn skills to counteract an oncoming episode. It takes desire, it takes being aggressive, even though the depressed person doesn't feel like it, and it takes being proactive. And truth be told, anti-depressant pills only cover the real cause, plus they can either stop working or they don't work at all.

Maybe a person has said, "if only I had more faith, if only I said more fervent prayers, then I would feel better, I wouldn't feel so sad." It's what we pray for that makes the difference. We pray to be taught or shown where and how to get help, to learn the skills needed to fight off this debilitating kind of mental illness. And it is a fight, it is a struggle, but the fight is worth feeling well.

Taking care of your mental health is as important as taking care of your physical and spiritual health.

"No Empty Chairs"

I gave a Relief Society lesson on Sunday, entitled "No Empty Chairs." The purpose of the lesson was to remind the sisters how important it is to reach out and to include all of our sisters in our circle of friendship. I encouraged the sisters to share how another woman or women in their lives have mourned with them, have born their burdens for them, or who have comforted them. All covenants we made at baptism. We also read the scripture in D&C where the Lord is admonishing us to succor the weak, lift the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees (this is such a visual scripture). Many of the sisters did share experiences from their lives where another woman lifted their hands that hung down, or strengthened their feeble knees. It was pointed out that friendships with women should have no age boundaries. I cherish the friendships I have with women who not so long ago were Young Women.

I have had many female friends in my lifetime beginning in the neighborhoods where I've lived, school chums I've known that I would never forget and would always keep in contact with (didn't happen), my party animal friends from a lonnnnng time ago, lots of roommates and workmates, friends from our Navy travels, and friends from the various Ward Relief Societies and those I have served with. And I certainly do not want to forget the good women I call dear friends who I'm related to through marriage, my in-laws. And of course my relatives.

The women pictured here are four very special friends to me and have been for over fifteen years. They are my cheerleaders, my teachers, my therapists, my confidants, my ego boosters, my everything!

Missing here, are pictures of each of you reading this post. I certainly count you as a good friend! Continue being the loving, charitable woman our Creator intended each of us to be, instruments for strengthening the feeble knees of His children.