Saturday, July 5, 2014

Above and Beyond

Yesterday, I ran 10 miles on a treadmill. Not my favorite way to do 10 miles.  Not anyone's favorite way to do 10 miles.  I ran it in 1:21:50. Not exceedingly fast.  Nor exceedinly slow.  7.2 MPH for the first half.  7.5 MPH for the second half.  I needed three more miles than I'd planned at the start of the week to burn off extra calories consumed on Thursday evening in the form of a peanut butter s'more pizza that I had for dessert.  The mileage puts me up to 1078.  I am still on US 54.  Near El Dorado Springs, MO.  In that town there is a Catholic church, St. Elizabeth.

St. Elizabeth's above and beyond was that she gave birth at an age when no one expected her to. She gave birth to the very important John the Baptist.  She (through John's jumping for joy still in the womb when Mary arrived pregnant with Jesus) was one of the first to recognize that Mary was going to be the mother of a very special child.  And her words in Luke Chapter 1 gave us the basis for part of the Hail Mary prayer.  What a wonderful story at that point in her life.  What faith and insight.

Faith and insight--what I explore and try to express through this blog.  

My above and beyond yesterday started with three extra miles.  The remainder of the morning was slow as Sherry and I tried to figure out what to do on a soggy Fourth of July while waiting for our dinner cruise.  We ended up mostly hanging in the morning.  I ate mostly her leftovers from the night before for lunch.  But we went to this cute little family restaurant called Morrisey's for lunch. I got a lovely bowl of French onion soup.  Sherry got a lobster macaroni and cheese that included bacon.  Awesome.  I suppose my "above and beyond" there was finishing hers.  We underestimated how much food she woudl get.

Then, we went to the grocery store to get a few extra things.  Sherry's above and beyond--coming with me to the grocery store which she does not usually do.

After that in the afternoon we played ping pong at the Windrifter.  That was fun.  We split four games.  Above and beyond for both of us as we rarely play ping pong.  

Then we went on the dinner cruise.  Three hours around the lake.  Very nice.  Dinner was good.  Dessert was good.  One drink each.  Fun people watching.  Good music.  Even the Marshall Tucker band song that I criticized for neither having a flute nor a decent synthezied flute was good.  The band was energetic.  The crowd was energetic.  And as anyone who has ever performed for a crowd knows, the more the crowd reacts, the better the band plays.  It is a really cool feedback loop.  We even danced some.  Need to dance more.  It wa very fun.

Then a longish but safe drive home back around the lake.

Great day.

The feedback between teh band and crowd is kind of like the feedback in any pair.  The more one person engages, the more the other person feels wanted, needed, and loved.  (Thanks to Meatloaf for the list of three.)  The more the other person feels wanted, needed, and loved, the more he or she engages.  The feedback loop continues.  And the relationship grows stronger.  Our marriage this week.  Our marrige forever.  

No comments:

Post a Comment