Month: June 2016

Finding the right Motivation

Or, why the right shoes really matter when learning how to jog.

I don’t run.  I have never enjoyed running.  I avoided any and all sports that included running. It made me angry, and I’m convinced I look pretty ridiculous.

However. God has a twisted sense of humour.

My beloved, B, has jogged off and on for years.  She actually played sports at a provincial level that involved running. Recently she took it up again.   I looked at the closet of nice clothes that are just that wee bit too small and have been for the past 3 summers (maybe more)?  So when B asked me if I wanted to try out the “Couch to 5km” program she’s been doing, I thought, why not.  Might as well try something different. Convinced that I would try it once and remember why I dislike it.

But then I found the right motivation.

shoes

Fluevog shoes. Expensive, made in Portugal, Canadian designed shoes.

Originally I had my heart set on these: called Kitschy  Kitschy Boom Boom Liz.

detail

But when they went on sale, I went into the store and try them on…and they didn’t fit. I’ve had foot issues for years now, which means cute shoes are hard to find.

Which is heart breaking. As a “plus sized” girl long before there were cute, affordable plus sized clothes, shoes were the one thing that always fit. Sure, size 10 was hard to come by, but I could always be sure of finding something that was hip or cute or fitting the mood or style of the moment.  Until my feet changed.

I sat in the Fluevog store, trying not to cry while this hip, young, pierced and tattooed man tried to bring me other shoes that might work. And I had to explain to him that although I came in wearing Birkenstocks, please don’t judge me by that. Nothing black or boring or orthotic looking.

Because, these were the motivation to jog. If I complete the couch to 5km program (or lose 20lbs, which ever comes first), I was going to buy and wear a pair of ridiculously expensive, seriously cute, well made and beautiful shoes.  But I couldn’t find any that fit my now slightly deformed feet, so all that hope and motivation and joy about earning lovely shoes was slipping away.

And bless that pierced, tattooed, seriously hip young man’s heart, he kept trying. The last pair he brought me were the ones. The final selling point (other than they fit – with a little stretching yet to come) was the sole.

shoe soul

The text reads “HEY MINSTREL – Your Love Makes Me Sing! Arise! Come! My Darling My Beautiful One, Come With Me”.

So, you see, the right shoes are very important when jogging. Because in a few more weeks, when I huff and puff my way through 5km, I will put on these beautiful, expensive shoes and strut with pride as far as my exhausted legs will take me. Knowing that I earned them.

 

Why?

What do I have to say that’s worthy of blog space?

Well, I’m not really sure.  Along with being a wife to B and mummy to two little whirlwinds C and R, I am an Ordained minister with the United Church of Canada. Up until 4 years ago, that meant that most weeks, I got to share my thoughts about life, the universe and everything with a congregation of people who gathered together to hear what I had to say.

That changed when I moved to a bigger church, in a “team” ministry, where my emphisis isn’t on the weekly worship. I only get to preach once a month.  And for someone hardwired and accustomed to seeing the world through the lens of “what does this say about faith, about life, about my expereince and how it fits into the wider story” and then sharing it – well, it’s hard.

Plus I’m an extrovert who doesn’t really know what I think about something until I’ve said it out loud.

So I’ll write it down instead.  And maybe somebody will read it.  And maybe they won’t. Maybe this is just one more blog in the overwhelming sea of everybody’s thoughts on the world

Maybe it’s just a break for my poor Facebook friends who have seen my random thoughts fill up their newsfeeds.

But it’s worth a shot!