Doing Hard Things!

I got back home on Tuesday after spending time with my grandchildren in El Paso and in Fountain Hills. We had so much fun together celebrating a birthday, playing, and decorating Halloween cupcakes.

Gens and his mother, the Witch!

I was home for a couple of hours when the phone rang with bad news, the kind of news that makes a mother heartsick. I knew I had to do something or I would just feel sad, sad, and more sad.

Wednesday morning I took a friend on a hike in the Catalinas (love being out in the desert mountains, so cleansing) and Wednesday afternoon I congratulated new moms at the Women's Center, and visited a friend in the hospital. Thursday and Friday mornings I did my chaplain work at NWMC. This week there were a few patients who had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer who were seeking spiritual help and guidance. This "ministry" is so fulfilling, and even uplifting as I hope and work to bring comfort and peace through the spirit to those in need.

These were the easy things I did to feel better and make sense of the challenges in my life.

The hard thing was to run in a 10k race I hadn't trained for and dealing with a body that has been existing on fats and bad carbs for too long. But I had to do it. I had to get out there and sweat, feel pain, and work hard. And I did. I'm not sure, but I might have been one of the last to cross the finish line! I will admit I walked a lot.

The race was the 28th annual Oracle Run. Lot's of hills. (The picture to the right is me!)

I love running downhill, and I stink at running uphill. Right now my life is on an incline where I have to work hard to get to the top, but if I trust in the Lord, He has promised me that He will help me make it to the summit where I can then begin my descent, the validating part.