Ten Things of Thankful: Another 10K!

This post is like my recent 10K run:  finished rather late, but happy to have completed it.  Before I write more about the race, though, here are some thankfuls I noticed earlier in the week:

1.  I'm thankful for the wind.  It's a familiar sound here, and I rather like to hear it howling.  It often signals a change in weather--usually colder--which, living in a hot desert, is a welcome relief.  (I can live with our January daily highs, though, but I still like to listen to the wind from the comfort of my house.)

2.  I'm thankful for the moon.   I probably post a photo every month, but every month I think, "Wow!  Look at that moon!" I must have a short memory, but the beauty of the moon never fails to amaze me.

 

3.  I'm thankful for friends who play the organ.  As I've mentioned before, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operates with a lay clergy. Because not every congregation has someone who has been trained on the organ, often piano players are asked if they will play the organ in our meetings.  In our ward, several of us take turns--one playing for the meetings one month, another playing the next month, etc.  

I think I am one of the least formally trained piano players of the bunch, and though I've "played" the organ for years at church, I really don't know what I'm doing.  I rely heavily on the "cheat sheet", a paper on the organ that tells me what preset button to push for prelude music, soft hymns, more energetic hymns, etc.  

When I sat down at the organ last Sunday and pressed my preferred setting button, I noticed that all of the stops went down.  Instant panic:  someone had reset all the preset buttons!  I had a flashback to the infamous day years ago when I detected trumpets during a should-be-quiet sacrament hymn.  I didn't want a repeat of that performance, and I didn't have time to experiment on my own to figure out what stops to set.  I quickly grabbed a friend from the congregation who calmly set the organ for me.  

I really should take the time to learn more about the organ, but I'm also really glad that I can draw on the knowledge of others.

4.  I'm thankful for the chance I had to substitute teach for the 4 & 5 year old class at church.  Besides being adorable, young children teach me many things, including humility.  

The lesson last Sunday was " I Can Choose the Right."  The children were supposed to learn to ask themselves, "What would Jesus want me to do?" when faced with a difficult decision.  To illustrate the point, the lesson manual suggested telling a story about a boy named Warren who was observing a nest of eggs in a bird sanctuary (where his father works).  While Warren was studying the nest, some boys came up, killed a bird with a slingshot, and threatened to hurt Warren if he told on them.  You can read the rest of the story here.  I hard-boiled some eggs and put them in a little nest to use as a visual aid.  Unfortunately, after telling the story, I inadvertently  cracked one of the eggs.  One of the little boys in the class lamented, "That egg will never be a bird."  

I started to explain that the eggs were hard-boiled, and that they never had birds inside of them to begin with, but quickly realized that my statement might just lead to other questions--questions that really weren't my place to answer.  So, we just went on with the lesson as written in the manual, while I felt as mean as the bird-killing, sling-shot-wielding boys in the story. 

5.  I'm thankful for John.  Yes, that is a repeat from other weeks, but there are so many little things that I notice each week that remind me of what a great guy he is.  On Wednesday, as I folded clothes--clean clothes which had been sitting in a laundry basket in our room for days--John said, sincerely and without sarcasm, "Oh, thank you."  Even though I've done most of the laundry our entire married life, he neither expressed annoyance that I hadn't folded and put away the clothes in a timely fashion, nor had he just taken my (albeit late) efforts for granted.  

(Segue into the 10K):

6.  I'm thankful that John also supports me in my interests.  He and youngest daughter came down to cheer me (and oldest daughter) on during the race.  He sweetly personalized a sign.  He felt like the more he added to the smiley face, the worse it got, but I think it's fine.

7.  I'm also thankful for others who supported me.  I joined Twitter fairly recently, and my phone now buzzes every time someone I follow tweets something.  During the run, my phone just kept buzzing and buzzing.  I thought of the line from It's a Wonderful Life:  "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."  In this case, however, "Every time my phone buzzes, Lizzi is rooting me on."  Though the tweets weren't really about me, I appreciate Lizzi and others--both online and IRL--who have offered words of encouragement.  

8.  I'm thankful for the Disneyland custodial staff.  Not only were they lined up throughout the race to cheer on the runners, I know they had a huge cleanup project awaiting them after the race.  With over 8300 race finishers of the Tinkerbell 10K  (not to mention the thousands who ran the 5K and the half marathon), there was a lot of pixie dust landing everywhere.  I'm not kidding.  You would not believe the amount of glitter that was in the women's bathrooms!  Anyone who has ever tried to clean up glitter knows what a hassle it is.  Hurray for Disney custodians, who remained cheerful even when faced with a tremendous number of fairy wings running through the park. 

(The video below gives a taste of what the run was like.  Where else could I have run in a green organza skirt and glittery fairy wings and blended in with the crowd?  I'm not in the video, but you can see how many people were in costume.)

 

9.   I'm thankful that oldest daughter came to run with me.  The day before the race, after picking up our packets, we spent the morning together at Disneyland.  John and youngest daughter joined us in the afternoon.  Oldest daughter loves photos with the characters, so we took a few, both before and during the run:

 10.  I'm thankful we finished and felt good during and after the race!

Thanks for another week!

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