Body: Down the Lane

Set-off down the lane today... the first 1.5mi in 12min, the last 1.5mi as a walk/run but in 16min -- for a total of 28min mile. A lovely run... down the lane.

Body: O2 Driven

A steady pace
To finish the race
Deep breaths
To extend the breadth

Mind alert and clear
Finish line increasingly near
Breathe in the country air
Breathe out thoughts of despair

Each mile an accomplishment
Each thought encouragement
Images of future meld with those of past
Wisdom guides you forward but not too fast

Breath serves as recognition
Of the energy and exertion
Driven by oxygen
Releasing every toxin

Soul: Saplings of the World

Precious saplings, nourished and nurtured for hours upon hours

Allow them to become deeply rooted and blossom beautiful flowers

Wavering in a vicious storm that does surround

Protected by the love from those around

"...I am, O my God, but a tiny seed which Thou hast sown in the soil of Thy love, and caused to spring forth by the hand of Thy bounty. This seed craveth, therefore, in its inmost being, for the waters of Thy mercy and the living fountain of Thy grace. Send down upon it, from the heaven of Thy loving-kindness, that which will enable it to flourish beneath Thy shadow and within the borders of Thy court. Thou art He Who watereth the hearts of all that have recognized Thee from Thy plenteous stream and the fountain of Thy living waters.

Praised be God, the Lord of the worlds."

--Bahá’u’lláh

Mind: Why I Eat

I eat because I am
The food enables me to find comfort and joy
I am because I eat
Confident - no longer inhibited or coy

I eat because I run
The nutrients provide the necessary fuel
I run because I ate
Prepared – carrying with each necessary tool

I eat, because I leap
The energy makes flight possible and I soar
I leap, because I ate
Ready – all that surrounds I embrace and explore


(this post is not exactly what I had promised in last post -- but for now close enough)

Body: Eating, Deriver of Energy

Please take a moment to reflect on whether you are eating to provide your body with energy and then exerting it in a positive and productive manner.

Does Energy drive your Eating or does Eating drive your Energy?
Is your Energy derived from Eating or do you exert your Energy to Eating?
Is grocery shopping and/or meal planning a joy or a chore?
Is eating a privilege, a habit, practical, celebratory, and/or relaxing?
Do your choices of food and drink provide you with the energy you need in your daily life?

The next blog posting will reflect on the mind's response to some of these questions and the battle that your mind may often go through -- including the way your mind processes thoughts of eating, drinking, abundance, cravings, energy, focus. In the meantime, please refer to below suggestions for foods and activity that may enhance fulfilling your need for energy and focus.

Food suggestions to consider adding in moderation: Berries, Dark Chocolate, Fish, Eggs, Nuts, Beans, Cucumbers

Beverage suggestions to consider adding in moderation: Water, Coffee

Activity suggestions to consider adding in moderation: Service, Prayer, Teaching, Consulting, Reading, Photography, Music, Friendship

Fitness suggestions to consider adding in moderation: Walking, Running, Swimming, Lifting, Stretching, Yoga, Climbing, Meditating, Playing Sports

Game suggestions to consider adding in moderation: Scrabble (or other similar word game), Spades (or other similar team card game), Sudoku (or other individual brain stimulater), Chess (or other competitive strategy game), Cranium (or other multi-player game that uses diverse functions of the brain)

Soul: Patience & Confidence

Patience is a virtue
They say, I also do say
Desire oneness with you
Today, each hour of each day

Confidence, result of faith
We will certainly reap what we sow
Harmony of interfaith
We can see what we already know

"We render thanks unto God for whatsoever hath befallen Us, and We patiently endure the things He hath ordained in the past or will ordain in the future. In Him have I placed My trust; and into His hands have I committed My Cause. He will, certainly, repay all them that endure with patience and put their confidence in Him."

-- Bahá’u’lláh (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Tablet to the Kings, Page 272)

Mind: Nurse Appreciation Week

"Comfort the sorrowful, Bring healing to the sick, Reassure the fearful..." -- All noble feats that Nurses engage in daily. Thank you Nurses!

In the spirit of healing and appreciation of those engaged in comfort and healing, I would like to share below quote regarding true healing -- reasserting the belief that mind, body, and soul are all aspects of the one human being and divinely connected.

“All true healing comes from God! There are two causes for sickness, one is material, the other spiritual. If the sickness is of the body, a material remedy is needed, if of the soul, a spiritual remedy.

If the heavenly benediction be upon us while we are being healed then only can we be made whole, for medicine is but the outward and visible means through which we obtain the heavenly healing. Unless the spirit be healed, the cure of the body is worth nothing. All is in the hands of God, and without Him there can be no health in us!

There have been many men who have died at last of the very disease of which they have made a special study. Aristotle, for instance, who made a special study of the digestion, died of a gastronomic malady. Aviseu was a specialist of the heart, but he died of heart disease. God is the great compassionate Physician who alone has the power to give true healing.

All creatures are dependent upon God, however great may seem their knowledge, power and independence.

Behold the mighty kings upon earth, for they have all the power in the world that man can give them, and yet when death calls they must obey, even as the peasants at their gates.

Look also at the animals, how helpless they are in their apparent strength! For the elephant, the largest of all animals, is troubled by the fly, and the lion cannot escape the irritation of the worm. Even man, the highest form of created beings, needs many things for his very life; first of all he needs air, and if he is deprived of it for a few minutes, he dies. He is also dependent on water, food, clothing, warmth, and many other things. On all sides he is surrounded by dangers and difficulties, against which his physical body alone cannot cope. If a man looks at the world around him, he will see how all created things are dependent and are captive to the laws of Nature.

Man alone, by his spiritual power, has been able to free himself, to soar above the world of matter and to make it his servant.

Without the help of God man is even as the beasts that perish, but God has bestowed such wonderful power upon him that he might ever look upward, and receive, among other gifts, healing from His divine Bounty.”

-- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks

Body: Yoga & Intimacy

Breathe in through your nose
And out through your mouth
Stretch your fingers to your toes
And let your head hang south

Listen to your breath
As you stretch and reach
Sink low for depth
Let's practice what we preach

Namaste. I honor the place in you
Where the entire universe resides
The place inside that shines true
In which the world’s secrets one confides

A sense of oneness
When in that stretch beside you
A sense of fondness
Transparent, one sees right through

Direct your gaze ahead
And look note behind
As if connected by a thread
Peace, together you will find

Soul: Consultation, Expression of Justice

Consort and discuss with an
Open mind and an open soul
Not attached to individual agenda
Selfless devotion considering the whole
Unsullied thought process and
Loving kindness in both talk and action
Taint not thy words with self-desire
And strive for unified interaction
Take time to consider all options
Invest in prayer and rely upon the Concourse on High
Offer praise and ask for detachment
Never lose site of the direction towards which we fly.

Excerpt from "The Promise of World Peace" by the Universal House of Justice:

The courage, the resolution, the pure motive, the selfless love of one people for another—all the spiritual and moral qualities required for effecting this momentous step towards peace are focused on the will to act. And it is towards arousing the necessary volition that earnest consideration must be given to the reality of man, namely, his thought. To understand the relevance of this potent reality is also to appreciate the social necessity of actualizing its unique value through candid, dispassionate and cordial consultation, and of acting upon the results of this process. Bahá’u’lláh insistently drew attention to the virtues and indispensability of consultation for ordering human affairs. He said: “Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leads the way and guides. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.” The very attempt to achieve peace through the consultative action he proposed can release such a salutary spirit among the peoples of the earth that no power could resist the final, triumphal outcome.

Excerpt from "The Prosperity of Humankind" by the Baha'i International Community:

What Bahá’u’lláh is calling for is a consultative process in which the individual participants strive to transcend their respective points of view, in order to function as members of a body with its own interests and goals. In such an atmosphere, characterized by both candor and courtesy, ideas belong not to the individual to whom they occur during the discussion but to the group as a whole, to take up, discard, or revise as seems to best serve the goal pursued. Consultation succeeds to the extent that all participants support the decisions arrived at, regardless of the individual opinions with which they entered the discussion. Under such circumstances an earlier decision can be readily reconsidered if experience exposes any shortcomings.

Viewed in such a light, consultation is the operating expression of justice in human affairs. So vital is it to the success of collective endeavor that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of the people on whose commitment and efforts the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project. “No man can attain his true station”, is Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel, “except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.”

Mind: Teacher Appreciation Day

Today, May 3rd, 2011 is Teacher Appreciation Day. Please take a moment to thank the teachers for the mighty efforts they exert daily to educate our children. The teachers are amongst those selfless souls that contribute to raising up generations of bright and radiant souls -- Brilliant Stars!

"The education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind and draweth down the grace and favour of the All-Merciful, for education is the indispensable foundation of all human excellence and alloweth man to work his way to the heights of abiding glory. If a child be trained from his infancy, he will, through the loving care of the Holy Gardener, drink in the crystal waters of the spirit and of knowledge, like a young tree amid the rilling brooks. And certainly he will gather to himself the bright rays of the Sun of Truth, and through its light and heat will grow ever fresh and fair in the garden of life.

Therefore must the mentor be a doctor as well: that is, he must, in instructing the child, remedy its faults; must give him learning, and at the same time rear him to have a spiritual nature. Let the teacher be a doctor to the character of the child, thus will he heal the spiritual ailments of the children of men.

If, in this momentous task, a mighty effort be exerted, the world of humanity will shine out with other adornings, and shed the fairest light. Then will this darksome place grow luminous, and this abode of earth turn into Heaven. The very demons will change to angels then, and wolves to shepherds of the flock, and the wild-dog pack to gazelles that pasture on the plains of oneness, and ravening beasts to peaceful herds; and birds of prey, with talons sharp as knives, to songsters warbling their sweet native notes."

-- “Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”, Sec. 103, pp. 129–31

Brilliant Stars, Thanks to You

Gems are found in the soil
Thanks to you, they're polished and do glimmer
Water needs heat to boil
Thanks to you, their minds surely do simmer

Plants often grow in the spring time
Yours have tall stems and deep roots
Blossoms in all different colors
Yours have gleaming esteems and lofty pursuits

Birds were given wings so that they could fly
Thanks to you, they take flight
Stars were placed in the nights sky
Thanks to you, they shine bright

“The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward. The principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples is ignorance. Today the mass of the people are uninformed even as to ordinary affairs, how much less do they grasp the core of the important problems and complex needs of the time.”
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Body: 5K Baseline Set

Weather: Partly Cloudy 60°F, 20mph Winds, 30mph Gusts
Location: Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis
Distance: 3.2miles (for reference 5K = 3.1miles)
Time: 30:15
Cool Down: 10-20min walk

After 30 minutes of non-stop running, energy level was high and a feeling of excitement, accomplishment, and general happiness filled the air. The baseline for 5K training had been set at 30:15 with a goal of reaching an 8-9min/mile average speed which equates to a 25-28min 5K race time.

Baseline Breakdown

Breathe in, breathe out
Heavy breathing already?
Each stride, each step
Slow down, take it steady.

Pleasant day, lovely company
Stories make for great distraction
To the table, along for the run
Encouragement and attraction

A little hot, a little sweaty
Wondering how far we've come
Running slow, Breathing heavy
Knowing we've got a ways to run

People are running past
Having no intent to compete
Notice others run quite fast.
I just want to simply complete
Almost near you say, that you're right I pray
Alright mile three, a hill up ahead
Listen to the stories, focus on cute dogs
Can I do this? Should I walk instead?

We're doing this, we're oh so near
But what if it's an illusion, and we're actually quite far
Are you sure we're approaching the end
Yes, really. Wow, is that actually my car?

We did it, we made it, the end has come
It's all in the pace, encouragement, and tread
A soar of energy, ready for another run
Ok, perhaps not, let's walk and talk instead