Simply...Excited!

I'm excited! Not about one thing in particular. Simply excited! There are soooo many things we can be fretting over, anxious of, stressed out about and irritated by - so instead, I'm choosing to be excited.

The fact is, I woke up with a really bad headache and didn't sleep well last night. But I got up and started praising Jesus anyway. I looked outside and saw we finally got those flurries we were supposed to get yesterday morning and that made me smile - and Magellan was pretty happy about them, too!

A couple of years ago, I re-injured a vertebra in my neck - the C-4 - if I recall correctly. I had been hiking on a trail at the Natchez Trace outside of Leaper's Fork, TN. One of my favorites! I slid on some fallen leaves but caught myself before falling completely. The next day, I happened to be on a ladder that started to fall, so I jerked it back the opposite direction in order to steady it. All that to say that those two incidents in combination exacerbated an injury to my neck about 15 years earlier when a friend and I were rear-ended by a drunk driver. This time, however, the pain was much worse. Pain radiated from my neck and down my arm. I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but this had me crying and being sent home from work. Thanks to prayer and a couple of wonderful chiropractors (along with a break from my way too high heels), I got better.

The following spring, I was going to train for my second half-marathon with a wonderful group that I helped start called One Voice Runners, in Franklin, TN. Only a few days into the training and I realized, my neck wasn't ready for that much running. I was disappointed. Later that year, I was able to train with the team and run my second half-marathon.

I don't know where you are this morning - physically, emotionally, spiritually - but find something to be excited about. I was able to run five miles last week and two miles yesterday. I have gas in my amazing Jeep, a wonderful Golden Retriever, a place to live, food to eat, family and friends that love me, my own business! How amazingly excited am I? And I bet, if you try hard enough, you can find some reasons to be "simply excited" too! We're not promised tomorrow - so live today to its fullest! Ask the Lord for His favor and to tune your ear to His voice. Obey Him. Smile at the cashier, engage someone who seems lonely in conversation, call your parents and tell them you love them, give the homeless person on the corner all the cash in your pocket, run a mile just because you can. It's truly exciting!