Friday, August 6, 2010

Flashback Friday - Memphis Fun

A warm August day in 2007
Visiting Mud Island in Memphis
Good memories, and great times!

 Fun on the tram ride over to the island.

A sweet cousin with the Memphis Pyramid in the background.

The kids at some of the tributaries before the river begins.
gotta love the "quick-I'm-getting-wet" faces. :-)

A quick trip out west. ;-)

Always time for a little visit 'home'.

Racing shoes down the river.

Nanni's being careful heading out of 'Memphis'.

Cooling down...
and getting wet.

Taking a moment to dry off.



Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Pain...

Pain is often the beginning of a journey.
I don't know how often it starts us moving, but I think it's a major cause.  To me, there are two responses to pain: sit in it, or move on.

I have sat in pain.  
It doesn't change the pain.  It acknowledges it;  it experiences its depth and edges; sitting in it can even allow me to learn from it.  The pain may lesson with time, but it remains, a place of tenderness, or perhaps a scar.

I have also been pushed by pain.  When the sitting in it just doesn't work.  Maybe there's too much pain to handle, or perhaps, it's a pain that's paralyzing.  Sometimes, I think, one pain can lead to another, they can feed from each other or avalanche into one another.  I can't sit in these pains. 
It's too much.  I must move.

I think it's easy to sit where we're comfortable.  There's no reason to move when surrounded by comfort, little motivation to change or adjust.  I've felt this too.  I tell myself I'm growing or changing, beginning a new direction, but I like the steadiness of what I've known. 

I don't think pain is like that.  Pain demands a reaction.  We can choose to sit, but that is a choice.
Pain moves us.  It shapes us.

I'm not sure I like that.
But I guess I don't have to, eh?