Streak of Bad Luck

The past two weeks have been unbelievable - and not particularly in a good way.  I have experienced one bad thing after another.  I feel like a walking hazard.  The streak started with my phone deciding to silence itself causing my alarm to not wake me on a work day.  Already running late for work, I got in a car wreck one block from my office.  We all know that dealing with insurance companies is no fun and I've been doing a lot of that over the past couple weeks.  Then I bought a new camera, dropped it 3 days later and now it won't turn on.  Today I walked out of church to find a note on the windshield of my rent car which said, "Sorry I scraped your car."  Not to mention the broken wrist I'm healing from.  It seems like when one bad thing happens it creates a domino effect which, at the time, seems to never end.

So I have a choice: let it all get to me and be in a constant bad mood OR be grateful that it's not worse than it is.  Just think, I could have been seriously injured in the car wreck... and the camera is just a material item... and I am grateful for a steady job, a roof over my head, my health, and supportive friends and family.  I'm hoping that with the Portland summer sun, everything else will brighten up as well.

"Rejoice in your trials, for we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the holy spirit whom he has given us."  - Romans 5:3-5

Relieving Stress

I do have some exciting (to me) news.  Yesterday, Portland's first sunny day in 3 weeks, I decided to enjoy the outdoors by going for a run.  I'm running my first 1/2 marathon in exacly 4 weeks and I've been a bit nervous because I haven't been training like I should.  But the weather was perfect, my ipod was loaded with a new running playlist and I was feeling good.  My goal was 8 miles and as I was running I bumped that goal up to 10 miles.  Then I thought, "maybe I could push it and run 12 miles."  Then I though, "heck, I might as well run a whole half marathon."  And I did!  Yesterday I ran 13.1 miles - the farthest I've ever run!  So I'm feeling good about my race in one month and the running helps me relieve all the stress that has piled up over the last 2 weeks.