Along with that happiness campaign...

Two YouTube videos designed to make your day.

Susan Boyle. Chances are you've already had this forwarded to you dozens of times but, if not, take the 7 minutes to watch this "who woulda thunk it" knock 'em dead performance. And try not to tear up. I dare you.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium). I LOVE THIS. Make sure you watch it through to the end. You'll grin through the entire thing. And wish you'd of been there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&feature=related

Quit Fighting Life

I've made a decision to be happy. It's not a huge leap. As a rule, I'm a pretty upbeat-every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining-better-luck-tomorrow-it's-all-for-a-reason type gal. But I've been observing a tendency I have lately to, for lack of a better word, fight with life.

It's usually over small things. I need to run errands, cook dinner, sort through a mess of e-mails and suddenly I'm sighing and feeling drained and wishing the stupid task would just be over with so I can get on with what's REALLY important in life (whatever that may be). All this wishing the mundane details of life away is wasteful. It's the whole "putting off being happy until life is perfect" syndrome. They are always always always going to be petty details and boring tasks to deal with--why not approach them with a positive attitude?

It's been a mere 48-hours on my "Look at me, I am joy" campaign and it's going well. Instead of feeling harried and like I'm wasting time, I'm working on gratitude. So the dishwasher needs to be emptied. Yea--I have a dishwasher! I need to photocopy clips to send to an editor--I'll pet the cat while the copies are printing (versus my normal mode of standing over the printer snarling, "Run out of ink and I will END you.")

I did a quick journal entry the other day and ran through my favorite exercise of describing my perfect day. When I read it back I was astonished to realize that I pretty much described my days as they are now. Only, I wasn't having that "life is so perfect" feeling. So where's the disconnect? Future living. I'm so concerned over what I should be doing or what still needs to be done that I'm fighting a constant mental battle. Hurry, hurry, hurry seems to be the refrain running through my mind. And you know what? It's making me tired. 

So I'm giving it a go of realizing why each day is a perfect day. Lucky for me, I live with Blair, the god of eternal optimism who rolls out of bed each day at 4:30 AM proclaiming "It's going to be a great day!" Where my usual inclination is to smack him, maybe if I work hard I can join him. 

Just not at 4:30 AM. I'll be joyous more around 6.

Cheers,

Dena

The World's Happiest Dog

I love this dog. Not just like. Not just admire. LOVE this dog. Happy dog Sara was rescued by my friend Linda from the Rockingham County Animal Shelter. It was a match meant to be. The shelter, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is so overcrowded most animals have only 72 hours to be adopted before they're put down. Sara was such a sweet dog that the shelter manager kept putting off putting her down, hoping someone would come for her. On day 10, my friend Linda, a hard-working volunteer with the Animal Protection Society, showed up. Thank you, God.

I went to visit about 2 weeks after Sara came to live with Linda and her family. That dog feels like she's been a part of the family for forever and a day. She's also a lover. No jumping, but leans her body in on yours, asking to be petted. Big eyes smile at you. Just a wonderful, well-behaved dog. I'm so thrilled for Linda and Sara and thought I'd share their story in case you needed something to brighten your day.

18 Days Until The Marathon

18 days until the North Carolina Marathon! With the exception of yesterday, I feel strong. I ate crappy yesterday and kept putting off my hill run until I admitted to myself at 7 PM that it just wasn't going to happen. But that's okay. That's the first run I've skipped in a loooong time. I'll do hills on Wednesday and make up for it. 

On Saturdays I've been doing 15 and 18 mile runs with my running partner, Marshall. And--knock wood--feeling good. Legs feel strong, back doesn't hurt, even my right knee which likes to give me grief has been behaving itself. This Saturday will be 20 miles and then we do an easy 11 the following week and then the marathon. 

Marshall and I are going to try running together during the Marathon. It's a tricky thing to do. Often one person feels better or worse at certain points of the race and you don't want to hold your partner back if they feel strong and can speed up just as you don't want to be held back yourself. But we've trained together on long runs for months now, our pace is identical, and we're both aiming for the same time range (4-hour-ish). 

My concern at this point is being unfamiliar with the course. Mentally it helps me to know that "Okay, a hill is coming up here," or "There's a nice downhill around the corner where I can relax." I'll drive the course before the race but it's still largely going to be an unknown. That and the weather are the biggest potential obstacles. Hoping for moderate temps and no humidity. 

Just hanging on mentally at the moment. No more slacking like last night allowed. Speaking of which, I'm heading out for a 6-mile tempo run right now. Marathon, here I come.