Guess What? GRATITUDE is officially Un-Canceled! *woot*woot*

Yall know that us runners and runner’ish beings are feeling some kinda way about the world. Specifically, for those of us who don’t own or like treadmills, getting those miles in when the world is shut down by the time the streetlights come on is stressful. Stress. Full. Bruh. However, all of us, are suffering similarly as we get those flight and hotel cancellations and credits, automatic deferrals to next year, or conversions to the virtual participation of a race we’ve been anticipating since paying the race fee.

We’re using the money we’ve saved to order face masks to go with our running outfits, or are mapping out trails in which people are adhering to the #PhysicalDistancing #StaySocialTho directives, because people do all kinds of math at work, but can't seem to calculate 6 feet between strangers.

Some of us are having first world struggles. Meanwhile, the Un-Canceled Project was feeling the tension and came up with this really great way to get that runner’s high and all that comes with it and #StaySafe at the same time. Check them out!  The Un-Canceled Project and after you sign up, request to join their Facebook Group. Trust me. This will be fun.

You not only get to set your race calendar, you get to decide how many events you do, and specifically how you get those miles. Yep, that’s right – you don’t even have to run them all, because let’s face it, you might need to stay inside. It’s not too safe out there. Here’s how it works: The Instructions!

For this past week, April 1 to April 5^th, my races were 10k and 5k. If you’re not able to run, 1 mile = 15 to 20 minutes of exercise. I’m using 20 minutes in my conversion because I’m also #Baking while I’m #SafeInside. Here’s how I got my miles:

10k = 6.2 miles

Running: 4.75 miles

Exercising: 29mins/1.45 miles

   [Math: 6.2mi – 4.75mi = 1.45mi; 1.45mi x 20min = 29mins]

5k = 3.1 miles

Running: 2.31 miles

Exercising: 16mins/0.79miles

    [Math: 3.1mi – 2.31mi = 0.79mi; 0.79mi x 20min = 15.8mins; round up to 16mins]

…and you know what, I’m feeling hella grateful. Because there is so much GRATITUDE, let me tell you about some of it (and more)!

1.   I get to do math yall! You know how much I like math. Yes, I’m still mad that growing up I did not know the story of Hidden Figures. I’m still hella bitter about that. I digress. The fact that I can run as far as I can safely, get back inside, and calculate the minutes I need to exercise to complete my race literally gives me an energy like none other. Like, I probably won’t run the full distance of any of these races this month JUST SO I CAN DO MATH. It’s that important to me.

2. I am connecting more online. Wasn’t that the purpose of social media anyway? I’m just realizing that I wasn’t using it to connect in real, intentional, and meaningful ways, until it was THE ONLY WAY I could reach some people. Being honest, I began feeling this when my sister moved to Shanghai to teach. I can connect with her via social media, WeChat, and her awesome blog. The fact that I can’t see her stresses me sometimes, especially when there’s a pandemic happening outside our windows. That stress is exponential knowing that even if I wanted to see people, it’s probably a bad idea because that asymptomatic impact is real. The stress decreases with every notification, virtual happy hour invite, and letter I write. Yes, I still handwrite letters and put stamps on them, and go to the Post Office.

3. I have always been kind to those now dubbed #EssentialWorkers, as my parents served in such capacities their whole lives. While I’m not grateful for our current circumstance, I am grateful that the importance of store clerks, custodial personnel, transportation providers, teachers, (etc) is being highlighted during this time. There is collective thanks and gratitude for their service, and an outpouring of love, respect, and support to them, just as we are (and should) our medical/health professionals. I just hope we keep this same energy when the world heals to ensure essential personnel receive essential pay.

4. Running has been such a powerful experience for me. Anytime I think of my time pounding the pavement, I think to my experience joining a Ragnar Team for Ragnar Hawaii (2016) #NotFastJustFurious. I had not met a single person physically, yet I flew to Hawaii, to join my team, and run around the big island. It hadn’t dawned on me that I traveled clear across the Pacific Ocean and didn’t technically know anyone until I was knocking on the hotel room door. In Hawaii. What is likely a cautionary tale about safety, turned out to be one of the best running and social experiences of my life. And here I go again… I don’t know none of yall, but I’m excited for the connections that come from this #PhysicallyDistantAndSocial experience!

5.    …and probably the source of my gratitude fueling this week – phone calls! My sleeping schedule has been off these past few weeks. So, when I got a video call Wednesday morning (4/1/20) I was soooo irritated. (the indignity!) It was my sister calling to tell me about my niece, to have me mediate on of their “spats” now that she, like many of you are WFH while distance learning with the kid(s). I answered but was VERY annoyed. As soon as I got off the phone, a friend called me, also WFH, to shoot the breeze during her “break” time. If not for those calls, I likely would have snoozed the alarm, and missed the opportunity to get up and get active. It just so happened that as I was finishing my miles, the creek trails started to get busy, which is what I wanted to avoid. What a blessing! I’m so grateful for all the human alarms in my life, waking me up, at just the right time!

This is tough. We have all adjusted, to differing degrees, to help #FlattenTheCurve. While I’m not as comfortable as I once was getting my miles in on the trails like I used to, I am so blessed, so grateful to be virtually connected to so many people around the world who are #StayingSafeInside and #BeingSafeOutside!

April 6^th – 12^th is about HOPE!

Join me! #virtually

Split A Piece of Wood (from the comfort of your home)

You likely thought I was going to talk about a splinter, hunh? Word on the street is, I sat on a wooden bench and got a splinter. In my backside. And had to figure a way to get it out that didn’t involve asking my Uncle. The last time he saw my backside, he was replacing a diaper. Neither one of us needed to experience him attending to my booty meat in the year of our Lord, 2020. Neither one of us. *you started singing too, didn’t you? come thruuuu mother gladys*

https://www.windowworldlexington.com/windows/sliding/

I’m writing to you on today, because I see that some people are still glad to be in the service at their church. I keep seeing these posts about places of worship and religiously affiliated associations looking for exemptions to the Shelter In Place directivers around the world, and the Physical Distancing #StaySocialTho #From6FeetOrMoreOrWiFi expectations set forth by literally every worldly governing body trying to keep you alive, in the wake of the pandemic. I know if you look out your window, you can’t see the pandemic, but just like the air, and the heavens above (to you believers) it’s there. It’s real.

My Daddie used to tell me that that good book you got over there (or on your phone) says when two or more are gathered in His name, Church can happen. I bet they needed to be in a specific building to do that back in the times of Jesus because the Pharisees were on him like gangs back in the 90s. They likely needed to come together too, in my Daddie’s growing up in the JimCrow South time (and the time before), because there were amerikkkans trying to be starting something with them. Those people found solace, safety, and salvation in the Lord’s House (that was built by men).

But in this time, in my time, and if you’re blessed to be reading this, your time too, the act of gathering hits a lil’different. We can literally come together from our physically distant homes. Be honest, DJ DNice’s #ClubQuarantine was everything! No? But you was jammin’ to Anthony Hamilton and laughing when he started yellin’ at his kids. And these make me choose battles? Teddy Riley and Babyface up next on #VERZUZ? It’s like naming a favorite kid from the world’s biggest stage with the loudest microphone.

Just think for a second. How did you feel? Were you alone? And, my God, did two or more like-minded souls gather?

Summa’yall used to think that Bedside Baptists weren’t getting the same blessings, and now look at you. That same God has made it so that you can praise in your wave caps, bonnets, and house shoes. Still get a word, on today. Still come together with the invention of wi-fi. Be blessed, in spite of (the whole pandemic outside your window).

I imagine those folks who think they need to come together using this gas (that’s also hittin’ like the 90s) to get the word, to receive the blessings, are thinking God is working in the former. But some of us aren’t foolish enough to think that God isn’t evolving with us. Frankly, all this stuff God’s anyway…well, it’s like both ours…but, you know. What if God wanted you to see that you were blessed enough to be in Church, in communion with people, every second of the day. That the fact that you could worship from the comfort of your home was a blessing. Perhaps God wanted you to know that when your car wasn’t working, or when you were really sick, you could have logged on from your phone and been praising and prophesying with the congregation. Just, maybe. ‘Cause honestly, if your place of worship is in 2020 with the rest of us, it’s likely streaming a message in real-time, or shortly after the conclusion of service. Or the same way you been watching television on YouTube or Facebook Live, about 50-11 million pastors been streaming a word that could have been for you.

Look, I can’t compel you to stay home. Just like I can’t convince you to not buy up all the toilet paper (c’mon fam, chill). I mean, look what it took for summa’yall to start washing your hands the right way (or at all, also, yall nasty)? It’s just, my heart is heavy about this dying world right now. I don’t like all yall, but I don’t want people dying like this, or worse, asymptomatically affecting others. ‘Cause I promise, if one of yall would have took my grandparents out before the Good Lord called them home, I was laying hands. And not holy ones…

But what was I saying?

I got this favorite movie. Well I have a lot of them that I really like, and depending on what I’m talking about, I’ll call it my favorite. Anyway, the movie – Stigmata. It’s about lost words, written by Jesus, the Christ, and not one of those disciples. An accounting in Jesus’ own words, by Jesus’ own hands. The Catholic Church is trying to keep the translated words a secret for fear those words would destroy the Church. That the message would tip the scales of power. That the people wouldn’t wait for the doors of the Church to open to access the Lord. What were those words?

…the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood…and I am there. Lift a stone…and you will find me…

Now I know these words (or something like them) are in places more religi’fied than that movie and this blog, but since summa’yall tried to buy plane tickets to Wakanda, work with me. Many Churches are maximizing 2020 using multiple virtual and #PhysicallyDistant medium to nuture believers and search for lost sheep. Now, I will leave you to connect the dots about some of those other “houses” of worship using government loopholes or inept government officials to encourage people to have their entire self, all the way outside during a global pandemic. ‘Cause it’s there.

I imagine the person sermonizing in your place of worship has sermonized about this sentiment – just like my Daddie. My Daddie told of us of a time where he called on the Lord as the Doctors took him into the operating room for surgery. Daddie said, his prayer consisted of one word, Jesus. Now, it might have been those smart ass doctors at Stanford, maybe it was Jesus, or some divine spirit working through them, but people die every day, and well, my Grandmama’s had been praying over my raggedly lil’ life for so long, I tend to believe a man when he says he prayed a prayer in faith. And his faith was returned to him exceedingly and abundantly.

Let me get back to this message so the choir can come up and sang another selection.

from the book, of FaceBook.

I just hope, these pastors haven’t convinced you that the only way to access the Lord, is to put your life in danger. I really hope, and pray, they haven’t convinced you to be unwise. ‘Cause whomever you’re praying to, that omnipresent being probably had something to say about foolishness and wisdom, in addition to the importance of gathering together. This is also a good time for you to look at yourself in the mirror and discuss just how devout you’ve been to all the other instructive information in that good book you got over there.

Also, when you potentially pass away from COVID-19 – because you keep going to Church when the Center for Disease Control & World Health Organization is actually, verbatim, telling you to Chill, fam – you won’t have a funeral or memorial service because well, while the doors of your Church might be open on Sunday, them people who got the body over there won’t be releasing your remains. Because, wisdom. And safety. And, well…

There. Is. A. Whole. Global. Pandemic. Outside. Your. Window.

And just in case you need a little more convincing. Do as my little sister, in Shanghai, who been #SafeInside waaaay longer than the rest of us, do what she told our other little sister to do: Just let that play let that play in the background while you’re cooking or cleaning.

Pray safe inside.

Some of us have summer birthdays.