Sat, 05/02/09 FAITH! Yeah, the kind of faith that can trike on water - amazing, eh? Of course, I have the kind of faith that says, "I'll watch you go first." I saw a woman run on this water, then I dipped my tires in, ever so slowly, thinking that maybe I shouldn't get my trike in the river. But, then determined "What the heck, Peter walked on water, so I can trike on water;" plus, I'd just witnessed the woman not sink. What I believe isn't the problem, it's the unbelief part that gets in my way of focusing on faith. I am like Thomas - no doubt about it. I'd want to poke my fingers in those holes and see if it was for real. Perhaps that's connected to another reason I'm fascinated w/ cadavers - I can poke around inside a human body and get an idea of what the insides of me look like. Of course, the insides of me gush blood if poked too hard. Not so w/ a cadaver, although some parts leak a variety of matter. Enough of this subject already.

A river runs through it, or more accurately a river runs over it. This is a beautiful portion of our local trail, which is paved. We have been blessed w/ an abundance of rain (and snow) this year, hence our river spilleth over and onto and into. I think we should plant rice b/c the fields are so wet. That's me treading water on my trike this morning. All in all, I triked 12+ miles for around 2 hrs. I stopped and visited a few times during the venture. The woman who ran on the water was gracious to take my picture triking over the water. The City had a barricade to stop people like her (& me) from entering this flooded portion of the trail. Well, those same barricades did not deter me a couple yrs ago when this portion of the trail was being constructed. Secretly, back then, I hoped a cop would lunge out from the trees and fine me for trespassing. My speech was prepared, "I am honored to pay for the right to run on this historic path and witness its transformation." I guess cops don't lunge, especially from trees. There are no Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kremes in my town; ahhh, now I remember, they gather at Big Boy. Where else?? No offense to any cops or relatives who may read this.

What a day of wonderment! Not to forego mentioning the beautiful weather, but I visited w/ a dear friend (from my former, pre-accident life). Her shouts of excitement made my day - she is hilarious (one of my favorite traits in people). I appreciate her candor in acknowledging that my face is different now. We (medical lingo for "doctors") think my "stiff upper lip" is due to nerve damage. I can feel it and can't make it loosen up; "we" notice nothing "unusual". Of course THEY didn't know me before. My lip, facial muscles, and voice quality are different. I don't drool as much as I did last summer. Speech therapy helped, but I suspect this may be as good as it gets. I think I'm in that phase of recovery where I'm accepting reality, "as is". When you see that label on a garment or appliance or any retail product you begin looking for what's missing or dented or malfunctioned. My personality resists "as is" - there's always room for improvement, which ultimately means nothing is "as good as it gets". That's my personality. GOD made me this way, right?

The perfect ending to an absolutely amazing day of graces was happenstancely (new word?) stopping by another friends when I "missed" the usual road home. Fortunately, she had just arrived home and had a fresh bouquet of flowers. "Bouquet" seems to minimize the enormity of this floral arrangement. She lavished flowers and readings and goodies for me to bring home. GOD never ceases to amaze me. I wonder if GOD says that about me??? When I merely go about going about GOD pours "more than I deserve" into my heart. I was perfectly content w/ the beauty of the day and being able to trike on water. That was enough. GOD gave me more than enough. Is that possible? I guess it really isn't "enough" unless GOD is in it, then the cup can overflow w/ GOoDness.

I look forward to sleeping (from my hips to my toes, every joint moans) and tomorrow's adventures. May you gain awareness and gratitude of your overflowing cup.

Blessings Abound!

~A~

PS: I made it up "that" hill on the other side of the lake (pic in some earlier post). Barely. Coach Mark walked behind me when I couldn't make one more pedal push. I regrouped my brain and breath and pressed on. By the end of July "that" hill will be a piece of cake! I love cake. Oh, and yeah, I started out this morning w/ former runner cohorts. Whenever I ran w/ this group I was always in the rear. Today, I zoomed ahead of them a couple times. In the end, they finished before me. Like I said, I stopped and visited a couple times :-)