40 Days to Better: Day 9

Today, I had my best track workout in a long time.  I ran 6, 800 meter intervals.  The first was around 3:05 and the last was around 2:55 and I got progressively faster.  I have to thank my track running buddy who has been out week after week recently. He leads most times but I lead on occasion such as the last 800 meter interval today.  It's all good.  He and my long-time running mentor think I should run a full marathon this fall (given how my track training is going and given that I have already done one 20 mile workout) but I have made a promise of no marathons until next fall at the earliest and I intend to stick to it.

Plus, I have figured out that for some reason my body truly enjoys the workouts although it does not always enjoy the races.  I like to run.  I like to run strong.  But I get "into my head" too much when I race.  So even if my workouts are not personal best times, just the freedom of doing what I want when I want is a great thing.  That freedom to just experience the world as it is and take it all in is that is part of the "40 Days to Better" today.

That freedom is nice.  I enjoy it quite a bit.  And I enjoy sharing the freedom to just run with others.  Not that I don't enjoy racing with others, but my races tend to turn into just that--races.  And I have never run all the way through a race with someone with whom I intended to run from the start.  So, that is why I can enjoy just going--whether with other runners or all alone.  And as my job changes to involve more time with others, I have begun to enjoy running alone again a bit more.

And as my personal life has begun to involve being present for people and having other people be present for me in ways that were not always clicking in the past year, I have begun to enjoy running alone more again.

Do I want to run alone?  Not necessarily.  Especially on the track I still value very much running with others.

But I realize that each type of running is a gift.  Running with others--the others are the gift.  Running alone--the time to just experience God's creation as it exists is the gift.

So, in the rest of life, I can take time to take things in as they are.  Experience.  Welcome.  Observe.  Just be.  And then take it along with me into the rest of my life.  As a part of myself.  As a part of what will make me who I am in the future.  Integrating each experience into the true me.  

The Joy of Teaching

So, yesterday I received an email from my teaching assistant that included the following:

Students are finding the course to be very different and challenging and "refreshing" and some students in particular talked about how they can tell that you really enjoy teaching and how great that is.  

I wrote back that even with my two Golden Apples on the bookshelf in my office, comments like this mean the world to me.  This is a course in which each class begins with me providing some background on an article we will discuss, having a couple of students try to lead a discussion, and then my going over and elaborating on certain points.  What do I bring to class?  Just a copy of the article and a few hand written notes.  No power point slides.  I use chalk at the chalk board.  And I ask students to write after almost every class putting to use the logic they are learning.  The discussion is completely organic.  I do have some ideas of what I want to cover but how much detail, how much elaboration, and how I transition from one topic to the next emerges as I teach.  It is a wonderful "old school" teaching style.  And while I enjoy teaching in general, it is just as refreshing for me as it is for the students as I have never had a chance to teach this way before.  And the whole time, I am thinking about what I need to cover, pacing myself, and thinking about how to link everything together.  It is an amazing experience and I am glad that students appreciate that.  This is why I love to teach.  And this is why I am so glad that my next career move if going to be toward a position that is even more concerned about education than I am now.