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Happy Ambitious New Year!

One of the gifts of taking the day off is just catching up on web articles and thinking. Here's a great one my Dad sent me today. It's chock full of New Year's resolution possibilities and worth the read. I've never been one to make resolutions, since I always seem to break them within a month. But for some reason this time I feel like I have traction, so I'm going to ride the momentum. Some of the following are already in motion, but to put them in writing for others to see (part of the beauty of social media) is like a virtual accountability group. So, here goes for my list:

1. Daily communion with God and dive deeper into prayer

2. Go to sleep same time with Mary (and subsequently getting up earlier)

3. Stretch myself as a creative, filmmaker, producer, writer

4. 2 triathlons--sprint distance, then full

5. Schedule exercise regiment--5 days/week of some type of activity: run/bike/spin/pilates/yoga

6. Maintain the blog on a regular basis (4-5 times/week)

7. Spend less than a dollar/day on doughnuts (except for trips to Kowalski's)

8. Stop eating doughnuts

9. Eat more greens

10. Care less about what people think of me

It's ambitious, I know. Batting averages say you're successful if you hit .333. I'd love to be a resolution batting champ come end of 2010.

Creative and Run

I don't feel like writing tonight. I ran 4 miles in 13 degrees. The Vikings are on and the post-workout adrenaline is almost gone. Dang. I love that post-workout bliss. I wish I had a limitless supply of energy. There's too much to do, write, think about, get done. There's a feature film to produce. And for those of you who were there--the book is still waiting to be finished. There's a finishing theme since I've been back blogging.

So, since I'm not good for a lot more tonight creatively, I'll send along a great creative thinker's site. If you go deep into the site, you may or may not appreciate some of what he has to say. I ate it up. But read all the way down on this linked page. I love his take on doing your own thing. Stop caring about what others think of you. Drink in some of Hugh Macleod's Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. You'll be refreshed.

And on the running front. Ah know, right? Seriously, I have no idea where this is coming from. I've now run more in the month of December than I've run in probably the last 5 years. Total. I know some of it was getting the green light from the orthopedic doctor (learning that I actually need to strengthen other parts of my body--i.e. the core). And some of it is just a personal quest to go somewhere I haven't. Going to do a sprint distance triathlon this next summer. Is 'do' a triathlon term? See. I don't even know how to talk 'run' yet. I'll get there. I am still laughing that I have this strong desire to run. I promise I'm not making money on this app (I think I'd be really good at iPhone evangelism) but if you have one, get RunKeeper. I'm waiting for the open window to purchase the Pro version, which is cheap when compared to your health (I'm trying to get that one to work.) I'd have to say that this little app gets at least 20% of the motivational credit.

So, it took me about an hour and a half to write this. Way distracted and the right side of the brain has been dozing for the last 30 minutes or so. And the Vikes are staging a comeback. Say what you will about Favre, but I'm a fan.

Merry Christmas! 2009

The winter storm we held our breath for has come and gone. The winter wonderland we enjoyed for 3 days has now frozen over into rock-like ice formations waiting for another warm spell. The food has been consumed and some of it regretted. But, the warmth of family and another season celebrating the mind-boggling miracle of Jesus coming to earth was one of my most memorable.

Not that anything out of the ordinary happened. It was just being together that mattered and slowing down enough to savor the moments, spontaneous and planned, that will be a special memory for years to come.

We celebrated the miracle of Kayla Rose born in July to Kyle and Jennie. We celebrated the health we have been fortunate to enjoy. We celebrated the gift of work that we treasure laboring over and homes that (though sometimes smell a little much like a fireplace) are inviting. I'm proud of Mary's hospitality in baking lasagna and a special meal for Mom. And the creative ice cream sandwich dessert. I'm grateful for Dad reading the birth story from Luke (always a Christmas tradition). I'm thankful for getting to spend time with both Mary's and my family, which have become our family. And our prayer together after dinner will remain a Christmas highlight to me. And who, really, is Mike Jondan (inside family joke)?

And with all the joy of laughing together, eating, watching little people scamper around the living room, the twinkle in the eyes of Grandmas as they held their grandchildren and our best efforts at celebrating Emmanuel...there is always something that aches inside when it's all over.

Even as I write, I'm sitting in our living room that just 2 days ago was filled with the life and energy and brightness of togetherness. It's now silent except for the furnace kicking in and the gurgle-click of the timed lighting. It was in a moment on Thursday night when everyone had gone and we were cleaning the kitchen that I was left, again, choked up. There's something more. With all of our frail human efforts to slow the season, to grasp what it means that the Creator of the world really did enter into humanity...we still, to some degree, miss it.

But I don't expect to get it before the other side of the thin veil of this life. Then, I believe, that only-tasted knowledge of the yet-realized heavenly intuition will truly be known. Christmas celebration will really make sense. The joy and laughter we experience momentarily here will fill every hidden place in our soul and we will know God in His fullness.

I look forward to 2010 and more moments of being together, of celebrating. I look forward to the possibilities, to the hope of growing and being stretched, of stories yet to be told. And another Christmas.

And so I'm once again humbled and taken aback at the speed of this life, the momentary graces of love and friendship, mercy and forgiveness.

Merry Christmas to you, dear family and friends. It's a privilege to be walking on this road together.

Back again.

OK, so it's embarrassing to be a stopper and starter. I've started and stopped on a number of things in my life, none of which have eternal consequences to my knowledge. But it's annoying because I want to be known as someone who finishes and finishes really well. That to say, the blog has taken a backseat to just about everything in my life for the past months. But, I think I'm back. I really do.

This short entry is just to get me going again. To give you a snapshot of what's going on--there is irony. My last blog entry was about India and yesterday we purchased tickets for our trip to India at the end of January. More to come on that, but to me it's kind of like lightning striking twice, if that can occur in a really positive way. I'm blown away at these life-changing experiences I am so fortunate to have and I am excited to see how I can serve by producing another project in India. I'm also wondering how trip #2 will affect me.

Today is also Mary and my 5 year anniversary. If anything has happened in the blink of an eye, it's the past 5 years. Who am I kidding? The past 23 years is one big blur to me.

Peter Cetera: "After all the stops and starts..."

Troy Gronseth: Really, I'm back.