Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We watched the movie Eat Pray Love recently. It's a true story (and book) by a woman named Elizabeth, recently divorced, who travels around the world in search of her life's meaning. She stops in Italy (to Eat), India (to Pray), and Bali (where she finds Love). When Elizabeth is in Rome, one of her friends explains to her that each city has "one word" that defines it - like "Ambition" for New York - and then gives her a personal challenge to define herself in one word.
This scene reminded me of a yearly tradition we have in our household. When we were Trinity Fellows our friend Shannon asked us all to share one word that defined the previous year, and then to share one word that we hoped would define the next year. We've been doing it ever since!
The exercise is interesting because it requires you to consider the past year's events - it's joys and sorrows - along with your responsibilities and relationships to find one single word that could define an entire year. It then it requires you to consider your hopes, dreams, prayers, and desires for your life (or more specifically, your next year). Our "word" speaks a lot about who we are (both our stories and our characters), and who we want to be.
So if you're reading this, let us pass the tradition on to you. What is your word for this past year? Next?
Stay tuned for our "words" in the coming days. In light of all that has happened in our families this year, we have a lot of words to sort through!
By the way, we're up to 6 miles in our training program which we found especially hard to accomplish after fattening up on all of the baked goods of the season!
Note to self, Eggnog is not a protein shake.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
12-11-10
Today we reached a new milestone in our training program - 5 miles! For both of us, who have never been long-distance runners, each "long run" day brings about a new personal record - so we have a little mini-celebration each Saturday for each other! This morning Lauren (a.k.a. Superwife), made scones and French pressed coffee right after we finished!
Today is also a special day for Jon's family. His brother Ben and sister-in-law Summer are in the hospital right now having a little baby boy. Prayers for them as they welcome their second into the world! Lauren noted that 12-11-10 is a pretty cool birthday for the little guy.
As for other countdowns, we are 5 months out from the Indy-Mini!
We struggled to roll out of bed this morning to train knowing how cold it was outside and how tired we've been with the busy travel schedule of late, but were reminded of our brother Andy and his daily, moment-by-moment struggle to make his way in this new world of his. At each moment of pain we experience in our runs, we count it as joy to be sharing in some small way in Andy's journey.
We are as determined as ever to complete this race and run our hearts out for him.
Today is also a special day for Jon's family. His brother Ben and sister-in-law Summer are in the hospital right now having a little baby boy. Prayers for them as they welcome their second into the world! Lauren noted that 12-11-10 is a pretty cool birthday for the little guy.
As for other countdowns, we are 5 months out from the Indy-Mini!
We struggled to roll out of bed this morning to train knowing how cold it was outside and how tired we've been with the busy travel schedule of late, but were reminded of our brother Andy and his daily, moment-by-moment struggle to make his way in this new world of his. At each moment of pain we experience in our runs, we count it as joy to be sharing in some small way in Andy's journey.
We are as determined as ever to complete this race and run our hearts out for him.
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Launch of Running for Andy!
Dear Friends,
As many of you know, on August 22, 2010, our brother Andy Bridge's life changed forever. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury after falling three stories in an apartment building in Chicago. He was visiting the city for a follow-up interview at Northwestern Hospital where he hoped to start practicing Dermatology this Fall. After several days of intensive care and surgery, it became clear that outside of a miracle, Andy's chances of walking again were remote. Andy has begun the very long process of recovery and rehabilitation, and continues to receive outpatient care at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Andy's road to recovery is a long one, full of challenges, new-found struggles and pain each day. While Andy is developing the skills necessary to live independently, he is also persevering through the great emotional hardship of accepting his new reality. In addition to this physical and emotional adversity, Andy's cost of living has greatly increased. His daily care expenses, large hospital bills and long-term equipment costs are very significant.
Through the amazing outpouring of love from his family and friends, a trust fund has been set up in Andy's name to help offset these expenses. So many of you have expressed a desire to help, and we have come up with a way that you can do just that. Before Andy's accident he was an avid runner, having completed many races including a marathon (in France!) and several half-marathons. In his honor, we (Andy's sister Lauren, brother-in-law Jon, Aunt Cathy, cousin Bart, and hopefully others!) have decided to run the Indianapolis half-marathon - the Indy Mini. This is a race Andy has run several times while living in Indianapolis the last 10 years. We have created this blog to be a "training log" and a sponsor site for all who wish to participate in Andy's story.
Our goal is to raise $5,000 by May 7th, 2011 - race day. This seems like a huge amount of money to us, but it is merely a drop in the bucket for what Andy needs. Our hope and prayer is that we will all learn through this process the beauty of giving our resources away for another. Would you consider joining us on this journey and helping us run for Andy?
With gratitude and hope,
Lauren and Jon Thompson
As many of you know, on August 22, 2010, our brother Andy Bridge's life changed forever. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury after falling three stories in an apartment building in Chicago. He was visiting the city for a follow-up interview at Northwestern Hospital where he hoped to start practicing Dermatology this Fall. After several days of intensive care and surgery, it became clear that outside of a miracle, Andy's chances of walking again were remote. Andy has begun the very long process of recovery and rehabilitation, and continues to receive outpatient care at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Andy's road to recovery is a long one, full of challenges, new-found struggles and pain each day. While Andy is developing the skills necessary to live independently, he is also persevering through the great emotional hardship of accepting his new reality. In addition to this physical and emotional adversity, Andy's cost of living has greatly increased. His daily care expenses, large hospital bills and long-term equipment costs are very significant.
Through the amazing outpouring of love from his family and friends, a trust fund has been set up in Andy's name to help offset these expenses. So many of you have expressed a desire to help, and we have come up with a way that you can do just that. Before Andy's accident he was an avid runner, having completed many races including a marathon (in France!) and several half-marathons. In his honor, we (Andy's sister Lauren, brother-in-law Jon, Aunt Cathy, cousin Bart, and hopefully others!) have decided to run the Indianapolis half-marathon - the Indy Mini. This is a race Andy has run several times while living in Indianapolis the last 10 years. We have created this blog to be a "training log" and a sponsor site for all who wish to participate in Andy's story.
Our goal is to raise $5,000 by May 7th, 2011 - race day. This seems like a huge amount of money to us, but it is merely a drop in the bucket for what Andy needs. Our hope and prayer is that we will all learn through this process the beauty of giving our resources away for another. Would you consider joining us on this journey and helping us run for Andy?
With gratitude and hope,
Lauren and Jon Thompson
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