RUN YOUR OWN RACE
By T. Randolph

This summer many of us watched the Olympics held in Beijing, China.  We watched many of the competitions to see who would take home the gold. Michael Phelps swam like no other person, breaking records and taking home 8 gold metals.  These athletes had to train hard and long to get to where they are at today.  It meant sacrifice, determination, will power and strength.  The ultimate goal is to win the Gold!!!  While competing, whether its running or swimming, you must stay in your lane.  You are disqualified if you cross into someone else lane.  In the track and field competition a runner got disqualified for stepping out of his land.  When the gun goes off your main focus is staying in your lane, concentrating on moving forward, not looking around or behind you, just looking straight ahead. 

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 it speaks of running your own race, staying in your own lane, training, listening and obeying God to receive a heavenly prize.  There’s an old cliché that says “The race is not won by the swift, but by the slow and steady.”  In the “world’s eye,” the swift wins the race, but in the “spiritual” eye the race is won by the slow and steady.  Be sure to listen to your coach, God, sacrifice and train hard, studying, meditating and praying to reach your ultimate goal.  You may be running the race for mental, spiritual, financial, or physical manifestation.  Whatever the race, train for it, do your best, stay in your lane, look straight ahead, run your own race and claim your prize!! 

 See you at the finish line!

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COUNT IT ALL JOY!
By T. Randolph, inspired by Kimberly William

There is a scripture in James 1:2 that states that “we should count it all joy.”  One of my ministers at church (Kim)  gave a sermon on this and at the time I was dealing with some heavy things on my mind and thought,” how can I be joyful when my life is in turmoil?”  Funny enough, she answered that question.  But with all that’s going on in the world today from tragedies, deaths, high prices for gas and food, high number of foreclosures and so on, we cannot look at circumstances and trials.  Kim stated that our focus needs to and should be on the joy of the Lord.  Our circumstances does not define who we are, are trials are there to strengthen us, and material things will not make us happy.  In the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” the father asked his son, “Are you happy?”  Although they did not have much, they were thankful that they had each other. While I know everyday will not be filled with happiness, we must consider the Joy and the source from where our Joy comes from. 

What is your souce of joy?   

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REFLECTION OF THANKS
by Tiwanda M. Randolph
 
For some, Thanksgiving or the time of harvest is a time of family and reflection.  This season is the most highly traveled time of the year, over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go, families get together to laugh, cry, put aside differences and reflection.  We have much to be thankful for and we should make it a point to take the time give thanks.  So, this season spend more time with your family, laugh more, take more photos and enjoy each others company.  Start a new habit by waking up each morning and think or say five things you are thankful for.

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WHY BE NORMAL?
by Grace L. Judson

When you think about it, it's pretty funny, the things that we'll do to be what our society considers normal. Just look at any band of teenagers in a shopping mall or outside a high school, and you'll see the lengths to which we humans will go to fit in with the group's definition of normal.

As adults, we continue relying on those conformity skills to fit in with our chosen crowd. Almost every group has its normal behaviors clearly defined: we can all identify computer geeks, soccer moms, aging hippies, golfers, and many other groups simply based on their behavioral attributes. I'm sure you belong to a number of groups whose characteristics you've adopted almost unconsciously.

Fitting in with a group is a good thing. It gives us a sense of belonging, identity, and security, and it establishes group-specific expectations of how each individual will act and respond to others in the group. In this way, it reduces misunderstandings and the social gyrations otherwise necessary to establish who you are and how you will behave. So members of a networking group have a mutual understanding that they will provide business opportunities to each other – and those in the group who violate this defined normal behavior will find themselves outcast or ostracized.

But at the same time, the pressure to be normal can be distressingly, painfully limiting due to our natural desire to retain that group identity, security, and safety. It squelches personal expression and creativity and smothers the urge to accomplish the extraordinary.

When was the last time you pointed to someone and said, "Wow, that person is so normal – I'd like to be just like that!" Instead, consider the heroes you admire and respect, whether they be political, religious, athletic, or in some other walk of life. Nelson Mandela; Mother Theresa; Gandhi; Tiger Woods – to name a very few – are these people normal!?

We all have the ability and opportunity to act in ways that are not normal, ways that expand our horizons and enhance our lives and the lives of others. It's usually fear that stops us: fear of stepping outside the defined normal conduct of our group, of being thought "weird" or – well, yes, abnormal. But it's by doing the unusual and the extraordinary that we can surprise ourselves by being more of who we are instead of less.

I invite you, therefore, to do something wonderfully not normal. Take a small step, even a baby step, outside your comfortable boundaries and explore the possibilities. Then think about how it felt, and how you plan to keep extending yourself into the abnormality of excellence.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain, 19th Century US author


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WHAT'S YOUR EMOTIONAL TYPE?
by: Kaia Van Zandt

For women, emotions are like water; they flow. The first time I attended therapy, my therapist began to educate me about my emotions. I thought I was crazy. She said, “No, just colorful.”  She explained to me that everyone feels their feelings differently. Some of us paint with pastels, while others go for richer hues. We have different palettes. My mother and I are very different emotionally. We have spent years coming to the place where we finally understand one another. Growing up she was the stable one, and I brought big emotional extremes and theatrical moods.
As I considered how emotions are like water, contemplating the ways that water flows, I came up with the four emotional types of women. Most of us have a primary, with a secondary:

River women:
River women are emotion in motion. Theirs is a subtle and constant stream of emotion that flows like a river from one feeling to the next, often seamlessly. They are remarkably even-tempered, with a great sense of playfulness. If they learn to channel their emotions into positive outlets, everything they touch takes on a certain shine. Though their emotions aren’t predictable, per say, they have patterns that are known to themselves and their loved ones, which are relatively decipherable. For example, a river woman might know that weddings always make her cry. She knows to never leave the house for a wedding without a purse full of tissue. River women laugh easily, and have great senses of humor, knowing innately how to cheer others and make them smile, just as rivers provide nourishment and sanctuary for all kinds of life.

Rain women:
Like the rain that comes and then departs, rain women have feelings that come from out of nowhere, and then dissolve and vanish back into the mystery. A rain woman can experience sudden emotional outbursts when logically she can’t make sense of why or where the feeling is coming from. I had a friend a few years ago who was certainly a rain woman. We would be in the middle of a conversation when suddenly out of nowhere she would begin to sob about something she was feeling. I would usually be very surprised by the suddenness and intensity of her feeling. Then, just as quickly, the rains would stop and the sun would come out and she would be laughing and carrying on again. It’s very important that rain women not judge themselves just because the emotion is so sudden. Rain refreshes and renews and restores. And then it departs to make way for the sunshine. Rain women can also tend to brood, like storm clouds on the horizon. Exercise helps them move emotions through. Rain women are often moved by the emotional victories and downfalls of other people. They will cry or laugh for someone else's win or loss, even total strangers, just as quickly as for themselves.

Lake women:
Still waters run deep. Lake women very rarely show their emotions on the surface. They feel so deeply and so privately, that their emotions usually remain contained. They are often referred to as calm or meditative individuals. They express their feelings with a simple warm smile, or a silence that indicates their sorrow. They are most comfortable showing their feelings when they are alone, or with someone they know intimately. They are not women who repress their feelings, but women who reveal very little of what they feel just naturally. Because they feel so deeply, they are often extremely connected to their environment, and prefer to be out in nature or in retreat centers. They also make great team players, and excel at sports like golf that require significant concentration and sensing beyond themselves. Lake women are also very empathic, picking up the feelings of others and mirroring them, or taking them on as their own. This is the same way a lake mirrors a flock of geese flying overhead. They receive impressions very easily. Lake women have to learn to build protective boundaries around themselves so they do not absorb the emotions of others.

Ocean women:
The ocean is a vast and deep body of water, always changing on the surface. This is the most complex and rich emotional temperament, and also the most challenging. Where a river or a rain woman might have one feeling at a time, ocean women can have emotional cocktails, feeling ten ways at once, with many layers of feeling spreading in all directions. There is a lot to sort through for ocean women. They are sometimes overwhelmed. On the surface, they are much like the sea. Every day is different. Some days are calm and tranquil. Other days are tempestuous and wild. An ocean woman can wake up in the morning from a night of dreams, and her whole day will carry the emotions from her sleep. Like the ocean these women are beautiful and deep and mysterious. Because their emotions can be so vast and unidentifiable, ocean women need music and dance and art to help them find and feel their feelings fully. Talking with close friends also helps to ground the shape-shifting ocean woman, and help her identify what she feels. Ocean women who become actors can lose themselves in their characters, completely embodying the role without a trace of themselves apparent. They have access to a great reservoir of feeling that informs their lives.

What emotional type are you? What emotional type do you think your best girlfriend is? What emotional type might your mother be, or your daughter?