Humbled

I went with some of my co-workers today down to Bowness, a part of Calgary that was hit hard by the floods. We made sandwiches and took cookies and sandwiches and fruit and just walked down the street and handed it out to people.

It was a totally overwhelming experience. People's houses are ruined. There is no insurance that covers this sort of thing. They may get some help from the government - but we all know that will not cover everything.

I was overwhelmed with the mess.
I was overwhelmed by all the people.
I was overwhelmed by the mud.
I was overwhelmed by people's gratitude.
I was overwhelmed by the mass numbers of people there to help.
I was overwhelmed by the police and firemen there trying to keep everything orderly.
I was overwhelmed thinking of how blessed I am that my home is dry.
I was overwhelmed with companies there to hang out piles and piles of food to people.
I was overwhelmed by women driving in with people's laundry fresh and clean.
I was overwhelmed by everyone's friendliness.

This world is a good place, even despite the terrible things that happen.








There is pile after pile after pile like this in front of every house. So much is just being tossed. It's unbelievable.

Walking

I've been walking for pretty much a year now. It's been an interesting learning curve. I got started walking when we ended up having only one vehicle. It seemed like not that big a deal to walk home from work each day. I didn't want to have to live by my husband's schedule for when he could pick me up. I soon learned that I loved the solitude of that hour after school. I walked through the entire year. I wasn't sure it was possible, but I learned it is surprisingly quite possible to walk all year round where I live.

For the last six weeks I've kind of fallen off the band wagon. I wanted to see how many months I could string together 100 km/month. I only got two in. We got a second vehicle and while I had promised myself I'd continue walking to or from work, I haven't. It's just so convenient to take the van for the ten minutes it takes to drive there versus the hour to walk. I told myself I'd get up early and walk - but it seems that morning seminary and early swim practices have the best of me. There's no getting up earlier to fit anything else in. I could have done it after school, but kids activities, evening engagements and more pushed that out. It's almost summer and my schedule is much more free and so I plan to do a lot of walking this summer. Once again I will have to figure out how to continue the trend in the fall. I'm not going to worry about that just yet.

The other funny thing is that I started a group on Facebook. A couple gals at work wanted to join me in the 100 km/month goal. We decided we'd keep ourselves accountable by reporting on Facebook. Then a few more people joined, and a few more. It got to be a much larger group than I'd ever planned on. Bizarre! Now there are a bunch of keeners on there who seem to get to 100 by the 20th of the month easily - and it drives me crazy! It's totally de-motivating to me. So strange. I'd leave the group if I hadn't started it. I pretty much just watch it, rather than participate now.

The experts say you should find a friend to exercise with. That did help me last summer, for sure. However, I've always known I am pretty much a solitude exerciser. Even when I've gone through spurts where I attended exercise classes, I really wasn't much into the social aspect of it. When I go to a gym I put on head phones and live in my own world. I'm the same with walking. A few people have tried to get me to walk with them. Now and then I can fit it in, but mostly I haven't had time and really would rather walk on my own anyway.

This summer my goal is to walk at least 6 km daily, and will try for 10. I also plan to add in some yoga and weights. I've lost some weight this year and toned up, and would like to get to a new level. I've remained pretty much the same for about six months - so I'm grateful to have the time and space to take it up a notch. Yea to summer!

Volunteering

Today Peirce volunteered in my classroom helping clean out desks, take off name tags, empty bulletin boards and more....all the stuff I usually get an army of children to help with.

 

Jill made sandwiches at the church for people helping out in the floods.




They went out and delivered food, but they got stuck in the mud - so the police drove them around on their quads to deliver lunches :) What an adventure!