''I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear:

I’m not screwing around. It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go.

Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy of love and belonging, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever.

Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through you. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen.''

Brené Brown

(daily ex. update, walk 2.5 miles, ytd walk 462.8 miles. run 6.5 miles, ytd run 774.8 miles)

 

(ex. update, dog walk 2.5 miles, ytd walk 460.3 miles, run 1.5 miles, ytd 768.3 miles)

 

(daily ex. update, walk 2.5 miles, ytd walk 457.8 miles.  pm tm 5.1 miles, ytd run 766.8 miles)

The New Colossus Emma Lazarus - 1849-1887

 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

     (daily ex. update, morning dog walk 2 miles, ytd walk 455.3 miles.  pm tm 10 miles, ytd run 761.7 miles.)

     

 

shared from Occupy Democrats

Are you familiar with the song “Blackbird” by The Beatles? Most of us are, but few know the REAL meaning behind it…

Paul McCartney was visiting America. He was sitting, resting, when he heard a woman screaming. He looked up to see a Black woman being surrounded by the police. The police had her handcuffed, and were beating her.

He thought the woman had committed a terrible crime, only to find out that "the crime" she committed was to sit in a section reserved for whites.

Paul was shocked. There was no segregation in England. But, here in America, the land of freedom, this is how Blacks were being treated.

McCartney and the Beatles went back home to England, but he would remember what he saw, how he felt, the unfairness of it all.

He also remembered watching television and following the news in America, the race riots and what was happening in Little Rock, Arkansas, what was going on in the Civil Rights movement.

He saw the picture of 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford attempt to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School as an angry mob followed her, yelling, "Drag her over this tree! Let's take care of that n**ger!'" and “Lynch her! Lynch her!” “No n**ger b*tch is going to get in our school!”

McCartney couldn't believe this was happening in America.

He thought of these women being mistreated, simply because of the color of her skin. He sat down and started writing.

Last year at a concert, he would meet two of the women who inspired him to write one of his most memorable songs, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, members of the Little Rock Nine (pictured here).

McCartney would tell the audience he was inspired by the courage of these women: "Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it's a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit, and that's this next one."

He explained that when he started writing the song, he had in mind a Black woman, but in England, "girls" were referred to as "birds." And, so the song started:

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting

for this moment to arise."

McCartney added that he and the Beatles cared passionately about the Civil Rights movement, "so this was really a song from me to a Black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.’

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting

for this moment to be free."

(daily ex. update, walk 3.6 miles, ytd walk 453.3 miles. early morning tm streak saver run 1.8 miles, ytd walk 751.7 miles)

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you.” Frida Kahlo

 (daily ex. update, dog walk 0.7 miles, ytd walk 449.7 miles.  pm tm run 7.1 miles, ytd run 749.9 miles)

 

(daily ex. update, walk 2.5 miles, ytd walk 449 miles, afternoon yardwork, pm tm run 4.3 miles, ytd run 742.8 miles)