Ps...

Prayers work. Just in their own, right time.

6:22am Bedtime

Life just gets a bit too ironic for me, sometimes.  About 6 weeks ago, I spent about every last dime I had to schedule an email blast to all of the The Knot's Austin Brides...today. 12 hours ago, my website crashed.  I've been on the phone with about every tech support person still awake all through the night and didn't get anywhere.  The company I really need to talk to is closed and won't be open until Monday.  This is gonna put make one good impression on my future market.

So what am I doing?  I'm praying.  That's what I'm doing.

'Galloping Granny'

I've been thinking a lot about Miss Mavis these days.  Mavis is a white south african, living in the Free State, and at age 84, was still running 3 miles a day. 

I should mention that Mavis was also the first woman ever recorded to run an ultramarathon, which she did in her forties.  Oh, and she is also the first woman to run across America, from LA to NYC, which she did in her fifties.  The only reason she never competed in the olympics was simply because she wasn't allowed to, South Africa was banned back then.

How did I meet Mavis?  Mavis's acquaintence was truly a gift from God, something I needed at the exact time it came.  I was a brand new missionary in a strange land, overwhelmed at the trials of the people that were begging me for help, and I was sick as a dog wondering if I could keep doing this really hard thing.  I remember driving down to her house one Sunday afternoon, excited to meet a cute little old lady that was part of this struggling branch that needed so much help. 

We found Mavis in a house in the desert, renting a small bedroom from a kind family.  In her room she had a twin bed, a computer (that she was fluent in), and a chair.  as simple as could be. The first thing that surprised me about her was her posture - she stood straight up, she walked with the ease of a 5 year old and she did NOT look 84.  I asked her to tell me her story, having NO idea what she would say.  I thought I would hear the normal life story, got married, had kids, husband passed too soon, etc.  Ummm.  'I'm an athlete,' she said.  Not 'was', 'is'.

Her history - she was setting world records at age 47, just for little things you know, like the 100 MILE races.  Everyone told her that a woman's body couldn't handle such things, only a man could accomplish such feats.  She wouldn't respond, just keep running.  When she was told she couldn't compete in a race, she would run it anyway, having her time never recorded.

Of her run across America, which she did as a 53 year old grandmother, she said,  “There were times when I thought I could not run another step but would set my goal as the next crack in the road – and so I ran from crack to crack. The heavy trucks drawing trailers would lift me up as they passed and I would always land on my right leg. By the 33^rd day I suffered a severe injury. I could not move and cried like a baby. But the next day I was back on the road again. I could not take painkillers as they would have masked any further injury taking place. It was very tough.
What brought me through were the words of the hymn Lead Kindly Light by John Henry Newman which I sang continually in my head.

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
One step at a time.

‘Four weeks of blistering heat were followed by four weeks of snow and icy winds and then a week of ceaseless rain. But when I reached Alantown the sun came out and stayed. When I crossed the line I could not believe it. I had achieved an ambition of a lifetime. The next morning I realized this could not be the end – I still had a lifetime ahead!”

After her favorite running partner, her son, was tragically killed, she had even more motivation to keep her training up - she was running for the both of them now.

Oh the stories Mavis would tell, humbly, quietly, all the while mentioning the toll it may have taken on her then grown children, wondering if she would do it the same all over again.  She was and is a powerhouse, neglecting her own health and comfort time after time, running races with a cracked collarbones and arms in casts.

I think about Mavis often.  How she just kept going. And she keeps going. One foot in front of the other.  From one crack in life to the next.  She gave me one of her medals before I left that area.  I have it, love it, will keep it forever.

“One must not retire,” she says. “We all need to be challenged along the way. I have been blessed in so many ways. All my strength does not come from myself. The Lord gives every bird his food, but he does not throw it into the nest. I have learnt that one has to get out of the nest. It is attitude not circumstances that create the events in our lives. We all make our choices and our mistakes. What counts is our attitude towards them.”



Here is a link to her biography: 
http://biography-ebooks.com/sample/180643/unstoppable-woman

another neat article:

http://www.athletics-africa.com/features/159/2012/05/28/mavis_hutchison_fish_hoek_south_africas_galloping_granny.html

'You cannot be truly frustrated at your job if your work is all you are.'

"What is it exactly that you think I can do for you,' he degraded, 'fatigue has nothing to do with neurology.'

Now this was the first sentence out of the man's mouth.  Not, 'hi,' or 'I'm Dr. Vaughan, nice to meet you."  And remember after trying to get out to Dallas for days on standby, I finally made it out that very morning on a 6 am flight, landing at 9:30, racing to my appt by 10.  I hadn't even sat all the way down yet.  What did I want to do?  get right back up and avoid the mistreatment that I then realized was awaiting me.  7 months.  I had waited 7 months for that appointment.  It was the last doctor I was going to give a chance.  You see why I go through these phases where I swear off anything with an MD attached to their name.  Then, six months will go by and I start to think that there has to be something I could be doing to help the situation, to expose the docs to it a little more, even.

then i go in and get chewed up.

i had to take several deep breaths, but i stood my ground.  I flat out told him, 'I'm not lazy, I'm not just a little tired, something is really wrong.'  "There is nothing I can do about someone who is just tired,' he kept saying.  'Doc. my body moves itself.  I'll be sitting in bed and my leg will suddenly move 2 inches up and down without me telling it to.'  I handed him a copy of my crazy abnormal spinal tap results that no one can figure out and he just shrugged, 'yeah, it's a little off but that could be because of anything.'

mmmkay.  I see how this was going to go.  Supressing tears, I had to stop, fight back the tears, and beg him to help me.  I just get so tired of having to practically go before a jury to prove that I am sick.  It's like walking into an ER with a bone sticking out and the doctors just shrugging their shoulder and saying, 'looks fine to me.'

oh, cfs, you are an invisible beast.  but you haven't gotten me down for good.  doc number 76, here we come.

doc number 74

flying to texas tomorrow to see a neurologist i've waited almost a year to see.  let's pray he's nice. and helpful would be good, too.

i wish i had the strength to do something like this

read here.

being norma

today I went to the temple to do my grandma norma's temple work.  I felt her there. I even smelled her - that crabtree and evelyn smell that would give her away a mile ahead.  we had been meaning to do it for weeks now and after that little lady gracing my dreams night after night, I knew she was getting anxious. sometimes I feel I can do so little but today, it was an honor to do something she couldn't do for herself.  


hope you are having quite a reunion tonight grandma, we sure miss you down here though.

a little at a time

Tonight I've been thinking about how answers to prayers come, a little at a time, in their own time.  What makes this week better than last to learn about what should be done? This year, this decade, even.  It just is - you needed that time to hang out on a limb and learn to trust the net will be there.  You needed that time to sit, ponder, stew even, worry, fret, and dig deep.

One thing I'm learning, it will all be okay.  It will always work out for your good (eventually).  Maybe the good from the hardest lesson you will ever have to learn is the test of faith, but I promise you will be better for it.

Little by little.


"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD"
                 -Psalms 27:14