For about 1 hour when I first awake, I’m an optimist. Having just rolled out of bed, I haven’t yet screwed up anything. I’ve barely been conscious for 7 minutes; just long enough to cradle a mug filled with 4 ounces of coffee and promise myself today is the day I’ll take care of my …
Living Lean: How I Got Rid of Half My Possessions
Look, I got a $500 credit card in the mail, let's go shopping! -Khloe Kardashian A while back, a photographer made a splash when he published a series of photos that captured Japan's consumerism. His brand-crazed countrymen posing with their own bizarre collections of luxury goods … themselves dwarfed by their piles of shoes, handbags, …
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The “Stopper” of Self-Justification
"A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. If I have done some wrong thing (or even some right thing that …
On aging (not-so) gracefully
Last week, I found myself sitting in an optometrist’s office trying on name-brand frames in tortoiseshell and slate. Are my eyes really positioned this close together, I thought glasses were supposed to make me look more like a sexy sophisticate and less like a coupon clipper? Precisely one year back, I spent a Tuesday afternoon …
C.S. Lewis: Suck it up, Soldier on
Even when I’m not shopping around for new lessons to learn, God seems to use the writings of C.S. Lewis to nudge me toward the truths he’s trying to teach me. There’s something about that man’s words that penetrate my heart so deeply. He’s got an incredible gift for constructing sentences that simultaneously pierce my …
Fresh Starts
What better way to celebrate Easter than with a sunrise run on Assateague Island? We escaped the city, to free up some pew space for DC’s Easter-Christmas crowd and to take a break from over-priced tapas and tourists taking selfies in front of the Washington Monument. The biggest lesson we learned in a seaside town …
Joining the Ranks of the Elite (or JB buys a Journal)
That’s right, my three cherished readers, I bought a running journal to help me become more intentional about reaching my goals. It’s got a pretty cover and is filled with photos--mostly of runners breaking world records wearing little more than a race bib and rippling abs. I misplaced my own abs a long time ago. …
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Enlightened
Wasn't it Buddha who said we’re shaped by our thoughts ... and what we think, we become? If so, my future self could be in t-r-o-u-b-l-e. I’m not too concerned that my brain darts around on my shorter runs; those seem just long enough to plot out what I’m going to feed myself for lunch …
This too shall pass?
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to start something you want to do? There’s a secret pocket of my heart where dreams are stored. And tucked deep inside—layered beneath my more prominent aspirations—is a teeny-tiny dream to write a blog. Because this dreamlet feels more like a whisper and less like a shout, …
Running & Fixing 