Rebekah Speaks

  Relationships matter.   More than a decade ago, I was their coach. That was my job. But it didn't stop there.    We ran together. Solved life problems together. Went to mountain trails together. Celebrated marriages, babies, and careers together. And today we are still connected.   Never let your job be the end of it.

  "Be brave. Be brave. Be brave." With eyes closed tight, my granddaughter, a bundle of joy and energy, whispered those words to muster up needed courage. Perched atop an inclined rounded log with fierce winds blowing, she then started her journey. She made it, gleefully jumping off at the end. She used all the resources available (her hand in mine) and her strong determination. There's gotta be a lesson in that for all of us. Facing a new task at work? Needing to repair a relationship? Taking on a huge fitness challenge. Be brave. Wisely use resources. Go for it!

  The receipt reported a total of 18.29. Addy, my granddaughter asked me to help extend her sewing skills, wanting to make flowy pants for our vaca next week. We probably spent more on the pattern, material, and elastic compared to what it would cost to buy the simple pants off the rack. That said, I shall not complain. Ever. It was money wisely invested in making both pants and memories. Don't ever overlook opportunities to grow meaningful, deep relationships.

“How many songs are you guys going to play at the end of the year concert?”, I inquired of Addyson, my   ten-year old granddaughter. We were chatting cheerfully as I steered the Grandma Taxi to deliver the child to her classical school that places great value on music education and the arts. The first semester of the year introduced the students to the recorder, performing the practiced songs at the Christmas concert. Now, after five months of playing the violin, she answered my question: “We will play four songs.” Having previously experienced the lovely squeaks and squawks of novice string musicians, I posed yet another question. “Do ya’ll sound good?” The answer? “A whole lot better than before!” She’s on to something. Progress requires equal doses of time and effort. Excellence doesn’t happen in a void. In fact, the standard 10,000 hour rule first attributed to Anders Ericsson and propagated by many, argues that expert status is only achieved after thousands of hour...

As I type these thoughts, I am waiting for something to happen at EMS Station 14. It is quiet, both my partners intermittently scrolling their phones or catching a quick cat nap going into their 24-hour shifts. The donuts kindly donated by some unknown party sit ignored on the large dining table. There is no hustle and bustle. Rater, we quietly await. Waiting can be excruciating. A friend posted just this morning the difficulty of waiting for critical medical test results. An online acquaintance wrote of Biblical examples of profitable waiting, citing Joseph and King David as exemplars. My own thinking turned to Jairus’ daughter, spoken of in the synoptic Gospels, who had taken ill and died before Jesus arrived. Parental hope must have plummeted to an all-time low when they thought—erroneously—that their waiting for the Healer to arrive would yield only sorrow. Rather, their wait turned joyous when the girl was given back life. Waiting is hard, mostly because we (read that, I) tend to ...

Alone in the forest and breathing with ferocity, I was probably sucking down more than my fair share of oxygen offered up by the photosynthesizing vegetation. Struggling up the mountain, my watch reported that the trail was rising at a 30% incline. That explained my heave-ho respiratory effort. My foray into the woods did not present an every-second brutal effort, but with many steep sections ranging from 15-20% grade in the first nine miles, it required considerable effort. But why did I get up at O’dark 30 and head to the mountains by myself in the first place? I submit to you that had I not known my “why” in tackling what was hard, I would likely have stayed in bed. There are a lot of hard things: relationships, career decisions, academics, athletic endeavors, sickness and injury, to name a few. In my situation, my “hard” is pushing myself physically and mentally. I spend hours swimming laps, push, pull, and lift iron in the weight room, and hike long miles during this time of recov...