Caution: Your life will not always be this good.

So, we returned Sunday night from our quick trip to Lake Tahoe, which was nice, but went by much too quickly- in all honesty. We left LGA Wednesday morning, leaving us three full days in the Lake Tahoe area, and caught a flight back to NYC from Reno at 7:30AM Sunday morning. So, three flights and three time zones later, we were back on our little island of Manhattan. I keep telling Chris, when we have money direct flights will be our splurge. But, when you are broke $300 to Reno sounds alot better than $1,200 for a direct flight. Even if it does take an entire day to get there.


Luckily, I got quite a bit of sleep on the plane ride(s) home, but I still crashed without as much as unloading a suitcase or starting a load of laundry.


I knew the week ahead of us would be go-go-go, non-stop, so some things have had to wait. Which is why I bought my groceries online yesterday. This week I have three doctor's appointments, a running meeting and rehearsal's for Sunday when Chris and I sing on the Praise Team. And it's cold, windy and rainy here- all week. And I'd really like to get in my "long" run on Saturday. Outside. At the park. All seven miles.


I've been running on the treadmill, which I really do not enjoy. But I hate running in the 20 degree weather more than I hate the treadmill. The only thing worse than running on the treadmill would be running on the treadmill without on iPod, which I have done for two days now. I dropped my iPod. Into the treadmill. It is forever in the twilight zone and will never be retrieved. Last night (after we got home at 9:00) I helped Chris - (well stood by for moral support and the occasional "Hey, hand me that.") try to free my trapped iPod from where it is caught in the treadmill. It's not happening. So, after getting this iPod three years ago from my parents on my 27th birthday, I am needing another one. Good thing I have a birthday coming up.


Last night we attended a Running Meeting where I finally got some new running shoes, which made me terribly happy. Chris got some new socks instead of the $70 heart rate monitor that he really wanted. "Stick with this running thing, and then we'll see about getting at heart rate monitor," was my response. Seriously, boys and their toys. We tried samples of nutrition bars, Shot Blocks, learned some helpful stretches and heard about nipple burn. And blisters. And the need for a product called body glide. Ouch! I've never ran more than seven miles, and now I'm starting to wonder what I signed up for.

2010 has been good so far. I feel like much of 2009 was dark and heavy and brought deep hurt and trials and times where I was like, "Okay, so this is my dark hour. This is her dark hour. Look, there is someone else, going through hell." During the winter of 2008 when the bottom dropped out of the market, NYC felt it pretty hard. So, the beginning of 2009 was rough. Then life just went nuts until the summer, when I started feeling pretty stable. Then Chris was gone for six weeks, and I did more soul searching, more writing, more reflecting. Horrible, unexplainable things happened, deaths happened, and none of us had answers but cried together and held each other up. But now it's 2010 and I feel like it's a season of Life and really Living.


Four friends are pregnant, one just eloped, jobs are being found, songs are being sung and it's as if the cycle continues. Not that this is something entirely new, or that it's the end of an era, but God is faithful. We have to trust Him in this. That life will not always be pretty or full of good times and yellow daisy days.


Pain will come again. Unexplainable things that hurt my feelings will happen to me, probably this week, but I am called to Live a Life of Love. To share it all with God. To vent to Him, to express gratitude to Him, to love Him in spite of my sin, in spite of not giving enough or doing enough- because it's a heart issue- a motive issue, not a doing enough issue. When I feel like it and when I really, really don't- to be faithful. The closer I am to Him, the more evident it will be to those around me. Authenticity is my battlecry.

Where are the authentic Christians? It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about Him.