Orthodoxy by Chesterton

I am really looking forward to Justine unpacking this book for me in the Renovare Book Club (highly recommend it - they have great resources to help you understand) because I was not that into it. It is my first read-through as I prepare for the book club. We won't start reading it with Justine until January, and I am hoping it sinks more deeply because it has always been on my bucket list of reading! 

I do like the message. It is just theology and logic that I don't need to follow God. I know my theology because of my studies, but I am into ENCOUNTER rather than more INSIGHT. :) 

Stay tuned! 

Soul Journey

I went to a workshop on this book with the author and loved it. I journaled quite a bit, and she was lovely (except she mentioned the Creation story as not really being real which I disagree with, but it did not affect how I felt about her). I read the book in preparation for this wonderful journey I am going on. I really believe the Camino will be a "soul journey" for me, and this was perfect!

Buen Camino! 

The Way is Made by Walking

 

This is one man's account of him walking the entire Camino de Santiago (French Way). It is a dear book (some parts more interesting than others as it really took me a while to get into the rhythm of his writing), and I loved reading it in preparation for my journey of just 71 miles of it. 

There are many quotes that I would love to include here. Maybe someday when I have more time. 

I want to post the journaling when you get back for people

From p. 190:

* What message or themes did God give you on this journey?

• What do you want to remember well from this pilgrimage?
* What was the best aspect of this time? What was the hardest?
• How did this experience change or affect your understanding of God? Your relationship with God?
• How would you like this experience to affect your life? Or your relationship with God?
* What do you need to have the pilgrimage continue to bear fruit?
 
You can do a number of things with such questions and issues:

• Journal about them.
• Find other ways to remember your journey: create a photo album or scrapbook, report on the Camino to your small group or Sunday school class, write an article for the local paper or a denominational
magazine.
• Pray about what you learned
* Talk about these matters with significant others (family, spiritual friends, spiritual mentors or directors, small group).
• Testify to fellow believers about what God has done with you on this pilgrimage.
• Find ways to be accountable for what you heard from God on this venture.
* Put keepsakes or mementos, stones or shells, art or icons, in places of prominence in your home or workplace to help you remember.

One Camino anthropologist believes that we do not do well at integrating pilgrimage learning into daily life as most "have no ritual of reintegration into the society we live in" Invite your friends or small group to join you in a time of worship. Share what God did through your pilgrimage and ask for prayers and support in living out the challenges ahead. 

Even the Sparrow

This is my second read-through, and I spent more time focusing on the activities at the end of each of the chapters. They are really good. I made a little journal out of the activities. 

Jill is such a talented and wonderful leader. I think people will learn so much from this memoir!

Tuesday Freewrite Fifteen Minutes

I think I will journal an Examen here for my freewrite. This will be an Examen from yesterday morning to right now (5:34 am). 

Big Breath: I ask you God to be with me. Relaxing.

Two or three things I am grateful for:

1. Elaine in Silent Prayer - her enthusiasm about meeting me
2. A mile walk up and down a hill without any pain
3. Claire, Elizabeth, Kat, and Katarina - stellar people to lead through the OMS Year of Preparation. 

Notice where God has been - where I accepted God invitation to loving, grateful and myself and where did I turn away from it. 

Morning - Good. I slept later than usual. I think I got eight hours, but later for me is about 4:45 or so? Meditation in the Psalms. Lectio365 was about Jesus being the bread of life, and how the SIGN STATEMENTS revealed something important about His identity and mission. Since I have been working with people on identity and the Cycle of Grace, it was so thrilling for me to have this be what we are doing this week in Lectio365! 

This leads to how we are to be a sign. I wrote in my journal "What sign then will you give?" But I cannot find that phrase in the devotional. I must have added it myself. 

Then I had an Examen time from my wonderful, restful Sunday.

Psalm 61: Loved the whole thing.

Then I prepared a Visio Divina for my last OMS Cohort. It was fun to create a PowerPoint, and I will put other pictures in there with it in the future. 

LATER MORNING

I led the last Order of the Mustard Seed Year of Preparation Cohort. 

For me, the Visio Divina was entitled "Breakthrough to Freedom" Making a hole for others to climb through. I need not be afraid of bloody hands in the process. Here is the picture.

We had a blessing time at the end, and it was lovely. I was so proud of Katarina who had never done something like that before, and her blessings were so beautiful. Claire had also prepared some wonderful ones based on Scriptures God had given, and the rest of us were more prophetic in nature. I had a general blessing for all. 

All in all, it was a lovely way to end the whole 10 months. I am so happy I led this group.

Mid Morning - I prepared to lead the Silent Prayer time and figured out how to get into the Zoom room.

NOON - Three other people joined me for Silent Prayer. I did a devotional with a Breath Prayer of Psalm 46:10. It was lovely and went really well.

AFTERNOON - I did thorough stretching and walked a mile around the block with no pain. YAY! I came back and rolled and watched the news.

EVENING - I watched a mindless show and fell asleep really early (again)! My evenings are where I feel like I want a practice of Presence. I think a short silent prayer time and Examen. I am so out of it by that time! Reading is difficult too. I love it when people are over, but I don't do well with spiritual direction on Zoom at that time!

My eating was great today! My exercise was great! YAY!

Where I turned away: I regret giving George a hard time about paying expedited shipping on something that would have gotten there in plenty of time. I apologized right after! Thank you for Your forgiveness and a very understanding husband! This is a foretaste of me being mindful of not worrying about spending on our Spain trip! I know people will try to nickel and dime us (especially the local airlines), and I need to "let it go!" 

What was especially meaningful? I think that my OMS Cohort was so especially meaningful, Lord. So amazingly meaningful in every way. I really grew to love them, and this is just what small groups do. 

This was my final blessing for them:

My prayer for you

May the Father of Life pour out His grace on you; 

may you feel His hand in everything you do 

and be strengthened by the things He brings you through: 

this is my prayer for you.

May the Son of God be Lord in all your ways; 

may He shepherd you the length of all your days, 

and in your heart may He receive the praise: 

this is my prayer for you.

And despite how simple it may sound, 

I pray that His grace will abound 

and motivate everything you do; 

and may the fullness of His love be shared through you.

May His Spirit comfort you, and make you strong,

may He discipline you gently when you’re wrong, 

and in your heart may He give you a song: 

this is my prayer for you.

May Jesus be Lord in all your ways, 

may He shepherd you the length of all your days, 

and in your heart may He receive the praise: 

this is my prayer for you, my prayer for you.

The Well Update: The Well-Tuned Body

See below to find out about these pictures!

I didn't expect this all to go on for so long, but this has been a good exercise for me to go through each component of the Well Update more thoroughly.

Well-Tuned Body

I have been building up from 1 mile on May 3rd with my Fitness walking class to a 15-mile day on September 16th in preparation for the Camino de Santiago from Sarria. I was fine until nine days ago when I started having pain while going downhill in Peavy Arboretum on September 22nd. I had it again after 3 miles on the flat on September 23. I went straight to the doctor on Monday morning and was so glad I did because the IT band was rubbing over the knee, and it had swollen. It is the repetitive motion that did it (coupled by having one leg shorter than the other, tight hips and legs, going on uneven surfaces in places like the arboreteum, etc.). So, I have a plan (already put that in a previous post).

What was so discouraging though was getting on the doctor's scale and discovering I had not lost as much weight as I thought. I have followed my Weight Watchers plan FAITHFULLY since July 27th. I was not weighing because I wanted to do it by "feel," and I discovered my capacity for self-deception is great! I have come to the conclusion that WW is more for people who do not eat very healthy and have a lot of weight to lose, and the "points" reward you for eating healthy things, but I already eat healthy things, and not counting any points for fruit means I don't lose. I LOVE FRUIT more than candy or even ice cream! Fruit is ZERO points. So, I ate a lot of fruit, and now that I am back on LoseIt (free or $20 a year for tons of cool features, but I have mostly used the free version since 2/2010), those fruits were adding a LOT of calories to my day. I had a lot of self-condemnation (even looking at myself in the mirror and scolding myself - yikes), and I was angry that I missed 9 weeks of losing because I was deceiving myself by not weighing. I am tall, and the weight on me just distributes itself. It is just hard to tell when I am losing, but I noticed my rings were not getting looser on my hand, and that usually happens when I lose weight. 

I am technically not overweight in the first place but at the top of my ideal weight range, but I always feel so much better in the middle of the range. 

I am comparing WW and LoseIt this week, and on their plan, I am eating between 10-14 points while I am following a calorie method in LoseIt. WW gives me 23 points a day plus adds points for all the exercise, and I exercise a LOT. I never used all my bonus points each week, and I was still NOT losing! (Maybe I lost about 5 pounds in 8 weeks? I am not sure because I was deceiving myself by not weighing.) I like WW because it is quicker to log, but I would rather take a little extra time weighing and measuring and losing weight than not losing without weighing and measuring. It has gone much better with LoseIt! I am 10 lbs. behind my goal and wasted time and money, but the self-condemnation is over now. It was a growing experience for me. 

About the exercise. I was walking so much. I burn100 calories per mile. I was doing Pilates pretty consistently for the last month, but this new program of stretching and strengthening that the doctor and Jennifer, my adorable physical therapist, have for me take an HOUR to complete! I realize that I was not stretching enough before I went for my walks, and my glute strength had decreased since I was not teaching four classes a week. I need a balance between bodywork and calorie burn. I have done the exercises for six days now, and I can already feel a difference. I am resting from walking for ten days, and I enjoy it. The weather has been beautiful for the last two days, but I am sticking to the instructions.

Speaking of sticking to the instructions, I was given a cream to apply to the swelling in my knee, and after four days of doing this, my knee got all these welts on it and inflamed red. I called the doctor on Saturday night and got a nice nurse who asked me lots of questions and told me I am OK and was an allergic reaction. I think I did not wait long enough to go in the shower after I put it on. The heat from the shower apparently makes it stronger. I am going to discontinue it totally because that was scary! My swelling has also gone down, and I will keep icing it until I see Jennifer on Wednesday.

My back is doing great! I am grateful. The tight IT band is no doubt related to the chain or my left side with tight hips that influence my back on the left side also. So, the exercises help my back also.  I feel really good other than the knee.

I have to say that I have loved the rest. Jennifer says I should have been tapering anyway. So, I will just do shorter walks from now on.

Rest and pause. When I did my Corrective Exercise Specialist certification, they made a big deal about an hour of total rest every day, and I am doing that in silent/centering prayer. I think this is important for my body and my soul to have complete inner stillness (of the body), inner silence (of the mind), and inner solitude (of the heart alone with God)! See my article on this on my website: 

Contemplative Rest in a Busy World

I think I am prepared in heart, soul, mind, and strength for the Camino. I am praying God protects and guides all nine of us as we go on this dream adventure. 

The Well Update - The Well-Educated Mind

 

I have not delved this deep into a Well Update in YEARS! I think it is because I am tapering off on my spiritual direction appointments and have tapered off (and stopped until next Wednesday) on my walking. I only had about seven hours of direction both individual and group. (It was supposed to be nine, but I had one who didn't show up (twice) and a cancellation due to internet issues.) And I am devoting about an hour to concentrated stretching and strengthening with a bit of Pilates. I should be swimming, but I am not too worried about my cardio on the Camino. That is good (but I digress and appropriate for the "Well-Tuned Body" portion of this Well update! LOL!)

The Well-Educated Mind

I didn't even want to do this part of the update because I have not been working through the book pictured above. I am #9 out of 2,126 people on the List Challenge for this book. (#1 is probably not true because there is NO WAY a person would have read every single book on that list - unless the author is on the list challenge, but this "Guest" has done it on all the reading lists. Very suspicious, but I digress once again.) When George saw me eyeing this book while at the library, he said, "There she goes again." I love a challenge. If you are new to my blog, from 2002-2013, I read 287 classics. So I thought my "lists" were done until this book. I am reading books I have never even heard of, and most of the time, I have really liked them! (Some have been duds but not many.)

But alas, I have had other things going on. Since I picked up this list, I have had reading for certifications in Spiritual Direction, the Enneagram, NASM Personal Training with Women's Fitness, Weight Loss, Corrective Exercise Specializations (NASM-CPT, CES, WFS, WLS), and Mental Health Coaching. I read nine books for the Order of the Mustard Seed too. I am also reading four Renovare Book Club books every year. So, I sprinkle these in between, and I will be very old if I finish this list! LOL!

All that to say is that I LOVE to learn. I am thirsty for learning. I cannot help myself. I love to learn and then apply. Rinse. Repeat. 

Lately, I have been reading books about the Camino de Santiago (The Way is Made by Walking) and the inward soul journey (Soul Journey). 

I also read at least 52 books a year. I'm at 41. The last from the 1000 Books List I read was Instead of a Letter. The ones I read for spiritual enrichment are so much more edifying, but when I read from the 1000 Books List. I learn compassion for people. I won't stop this new challenge, even though sometimes they are a bit edgy for me! I won't obsess over it. My "BHAG" (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) was the 287 books nine years ago. This is just icing and more LEARNING! 

I am loving my reading journey with more spiritual books this year. (Renovare Book Club has some wonderful ones this year, and I have the possibility of nine people in our group!)

I am also taking another certification course in EMDR because I am fascinated by it. 

I am also learning so much as I prepare PowerPoints for each of the Enneagram types and then teach them to my directees! I go deeper, and I understand people and myself so much better. That is another kind of "education"!

I am also learning about IT bands! But that will be my next installment of The Well Update! 

TTFN.