Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Seasons

This blog has not been kept up for the past several years because my professional and private life created enough activities that posting updates were more work than pleasure.

So I took a season off from updating this.  Now as my life continues to evolve, I feel it might be the right time to begin this journey again.

So in the Winter/Spring of 2016, I made a major change in my life.  I began to transition from being the Associate Director for the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel to life as the General Presbyter of Kiskiminetas Presbytery in Pennsylvania.  Basically, I became pastor to 79 churches with about 7,000 plus members spread across a 5 county area Northeast of Pittsburgh.  And it has been a wonderful adventure.

But making this transition has had ups and downs.  One of the downsides was having to cut my running time.  After all my years of running and moving, I realize that there is a time you have to just admit, running time is a luxury that you currently can't afford.  I know there are some who would highly disagree with me on that statement, but honestly, when running dictates your daily activities to the point of hurting you and your relationship with others, it is too much.  And as a Christian, I believe that my relationship with God is more important than running.  So I greatly reduced my runs.  I didn't stop, but my average monthly millage total dropped to about 60 miles, or about 2 miles a day.

But as I began to settle into a comfort level with my life, I began to increase my mileage and time.  Balance is critical.  So when I balanced my life out, with work, family, and God; I was able to bring back my running time.  Lesson to be learned:  I control my running, my running doesn't control me.  O there were times I didn't take that lesson to heart, and the result always tended to be an increase in my stress level. I run to reduce stress, not to increase it.  So I took the season off.

Now I'm back.  On 30 September, I'll be up in Bristol, New Hampshire to run their marathon.  I'm excited and anxious to get back. As my old coach used to say:  Go out, have fun, and keep the desire to run.  Yeah...that's what it is all about.