Run for Congo Women

I have been looking for motivation to exercise my whole life. Actually, I am always running. I run to the store, to pick-up children, to meetings. But I have never been able to run for exercise. I have wanted motivation to become healthier, loose weight, pump energy into my tired body. Obviously the motivations haven't been there as I get a bowl of ice cream and sedate myself in front of another episode of Law and Order.

Then I my cousin posted a simple Youtube video on her blog.

We can never predict when something we see, hear, or experience is going to effect us in such a way that sparks a flame and then becomes life changing. We see and hear so much in our world. If there is an earthquake on the other side of the world from us, we have news reports immediately flooding into our homes. We are touched, move to action. We want to help. Sometimes the knowledge of the tragedy of another touches us to our core, and changes us forever.

Today I went to the gym. I weighed myself. Funny, I need to loose the exact number of pounds that I am old. I turn 44 in three days, you can figure out how much weight I should loose to be considered healthy. I chose a treadmill that faced a panoramic window looking out at the snow dusted mountains with the sunrise just coming over the crest. I had my motivating, move yourself music plugged into me ears. And I started to walk. Then I walked a little fasted. I actually jogged a few times in between my brisk walking pace. I looked out at those mountains and thought that miles beyond those peaks was Congo. I walked faster, jogged a little more frequently.

A beautiful thing happened today. I traveled a 5K distance on that treadmill this morning. I am running for Congo.