beat it, your body, that is

Well, time has passed, and I still am adhering to the training program I set up for myself, and (as far as I can tell) I think I will be ready for my 5K before I head out to Colorado. I did all of my walk/run intervals on the first level, and today I increased my run time by 4 min total. After two more of these run sessions I'll increase again. :) I'm becoming a runner!

All I can say is that it's about time! I can already tell that the intervals are getting easier and easier. Even doubling the run time intervals today was not that bad... I was definitely more tired after the whole session, but I could've done more, and that feeling KICKS BUTT.

My mom and I have been going together: she's my timer, and that also holds her accountable to get in some serious walk-time every day like she needs to (oh, the heart trouble on that side of the family!!!). The real test, of course, will be when I'm not at home or with someone to train with, but I don't anticipate that time coming until the beginning of June (Jewels' wedding), and by then I hope I'll have my routine down enough to do it on my own.

and the lakes have it!

If you seek a pleasant peninsula... come to visit me, because I'm back in Michigan!

As frequently as I've thought that Michigan is a boring state to live in, I realize now that I'd never lived somewhere less diverse and exciting. Michigan really is a super place to live... the lakes on their own are a superior quality (no pun intended). I love that a few minutes' drive brings me to something so completely beyond my power and comprehension, so entirely wrought by God Himself, and also so perfectly controlled and regulated by Him as to be maintained and enjoyed, but also remain unpredictable by us humans.

I love how the lakes are God's wonderful provision for us--they are a source of recreation, food, water, pleasure, employment.... I love how when I think of HOME(s), that's one of the first things that comes to mind.

By the water's edge is a favorite place to meet with God, and (at last!) I can do so once again without the smell of sewage at the nearby water treatment plant (for those of you who don't know, I lived down by the Wabash River in Lafayette very near to that smelly place)!

There is such comfort of knowing a place well, of owning it or having it internalized in you, and I feel like this whole state provides that kind of sweet familiarity for me. Regardless of where within it I may be, I feel like I'm home.

I've recently been studying in the Bible about the inheritance laws and provision for the land God implemented in the Law, and I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of why the nation of Israel is so bound to their land. They have been led there by God Himself, and commanded not to ever sell it permanently, to redeem it for their relatives who have fallen upon hard times, to care for it because it belongs to the Lord.

This land is their only home, Jews are sojourners in foreign lands when they're anywhere else. Somehow, on a small level, I relate to them in this understanding of home--Michigan, My Michigan.