Who's Your Mama?

Warning- Random thoughts and a garbage truck load of cheeseball phrases await you in this post. Read only if you dare.

This morning, on my run, I was thinking of all the cheesy phrases people use for motivation in running and fitness. "Power through", "Tap into your source", "Use your Chi and relax your legs". (Seriously? I am RUNNING, for heaven's sake. How relaxed can my legs possibly be??) "Center Yourself". Sure thing. What in the world does that even mean? "Use your powerhouse". Uh huh.

What about all those cliches about struggles and life circumstances? "Everything happens for a reason". Duh.

On New Year's Eve, we invited some friends over for dinner, and to let all the kids run around the house like wild wildebeests. We have a tradition with these friends. Almost every time we get together for dinner, our husbands try to recreate a favorite Asian dish from a restaurant that they once loved, but is now closed. We wives stay out of the way and pretend not to see the aforementioned wild animals trekking through the house. This time, they brought over some hot and sour soup from a local Chinese restaurant to accompany the meal. In the bottom of the bag, there were two fortune cookies. We joked that each family gets one, and we made our selections. I opened the Hall family fortune. (Understand, we don't put a lot of faith in what we find in fortune cookies. We usually like to read them, and then complete the sentence with "on the toilet". It's great fun. You should try it sometime.)

Anyway, I opened up our cookie, and this is what I found: "You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course". Now, if you didn't read my post entitled "Staying on Course", this means nothing. But, if you did, you are saying "Ooh, Wow". Yeah, that's exactly what I said.

Back to this morning. I knew this would be a good week. I was due one. So, I decided to start it with a bang. (Yep, more cliches are on the way). I had my mind set to make it a good run today, and prove to myself that I can do it! So, instead of avoiding the harder hills, or just walking them like I normally do, I decided to take the bull by the horns and run up them. Every one of them.

I think that when it comes to running, and just life in general, sometimes you need to take that bull by his big ugly horns, and drag him up the hills, kicking, snorting, and digging his muscle-bound bull hooves into the dirt, moving backwards with all his might. Get in there, get it done, and call it a day. Then, shout, "Who's your mama, now, bull?" (Only do that if you are positive no one is within hearing distance).

So, that's what I did (shouting only figuratively, of course). At every one of those nasty little hills. And, that's what I intend to do from now on. I am going to keep on keepin' on, knowing exactly WHO is my powerhouse, my source, and my strength- My God. He is behind it all, even the fortune cookie.

Aaaahhhh, Grasshopper. Not so random after all, huh?

I bet you never imagined you could read that many cliches in one sitting. You were wrong.