Petaling, Party, Pedaling and Prayer

I will be putting up some pictures of a flower blooming throughout this post. One of the students brought these beautiful plants in for the teachers and after it had a near death experience, due to an unintended desert experience, beautiful flowers began to appear. One day last week I caught the flowering in action, hence the petaling as part of the title.


Today I attended a birthday party for my friend Donna. We had a fantastic time as we played games, munched, joked around and shared a meal...and then played some more. Tonight I am realizing that Donna has been a friend for over half my life. And this group of women that celebrated has been getting together for like 15 years or more. These are the friends that provide a home in the relationships of my life. There is no other way to describe it. There have been times when through distance or busy-ness I have not been able to be with them, and still through these things love persists. It was an evening of gratitude. Happy Birthday Donna!!!!




Upon returning from the birthday party I decided to go to the gym and work-out. This initiative was not something I thought of on my own. It was sparked by the phone call I received a few days ago saying I have not been there in a while and they were wondering what happened (they can track how often you go and this summer I was negligent at best). So yesterday I returned the call and fessed-up to my lack of reasons and committed to working out today (which did not happen this morning as planned....blech). The entire time I was on that spinning bike my hamstrings were letting me know they were not pleased.

The other thing I reflected on while spinning was how prayer and exercise are the first to go when experiencing imbalance or a chaotic cycle in life. Since beginning the doctoral program at the end of August I have struggled to keep on top of my prayer time. I can become so caught up in intellectual pursuit that I forget that I have a spirit and body that need to be nourished as well. So, getting the reminder call from the trainer is an opportunity to remove myself from a state of neglect and move toward greater balance. Another little something to learn it seems (the list is growing).

Good Night!