Pavement Therepy: When you feel helpless...RUN

When I first moved here... "PCSed" here... I knew nothing of Military life...I had no idea what life could exist beyond the city that was my home.. the friends who knew my entire life story, and the family who loved me from 4 months on. ALL I knew was pavement. Pavement is where I learnt to ride my bike... what i followed to friends homes, and where we spent countless hours playing basketball.... Pavement.

A few months into our move, after my youngest son was born, I started going to a story time with the boys at the chapel on post.. and there... there I met my first "army wife" friend. Amy.

She is the most wonderful human being on this planet.. no bias. Shes a wonderful mom, faitful friend, and a god-loving person. LOVE her. She invited me to her running group, and I started 6 weeks after Brice was born.. needless to say.. these women changed my entire life.

Of course we had some in-and-out runners... but our core was made of fantasticness. We'd meet at night, when it was cool, and run together.. at our own paces... and it was amazing.

The thing is.. we rarely spoke. We had our "meeting time" after where we just chatted about life.. but the run.. thats where life really changed for me.

Confidence? Restored.
Faith? Restored.
Strength? Restored.

My first obstacle in life... was defeated on that strip of pavement... My inability to accept that I could ever, truely, be loved.

I've battled, my entire life.. the fact that I was a rip in a tide... nothing. I was adopated at 4 months old, which was hidden from me. I was a girly, confident, outgoing girl.. who just didn't "fit" in with my tom-boy and sports loving cousins.. I was an outcast from the very begining.... but here.. on the pavement... as my sneakers pounded away... I was something more. I was life.

When I entered Jr.High... rumors flew about me.. who I was... who I wasn't.. and I allowed them to believe whatever they wanted. I accepted lies about myself, and became who they pictured me to be. I really, didn't care. I still don't. I garuntee half of them don't remember my name.. the other half are the ones who signed my year book appologizing for not knowing me, or admitting to spreading lies and.. appologizing. I don't have ties there any more... and never will. ALL of that.. was found gone in the midst of the pavement.

My husbands crazy ex-wife.. who admited she didn't allow us to see his daughter as much as we SHOULD have because she was jealous of me.... all of the time we lost with her... all of the names I was called..the times my husband chose to allow her to bash me without him speaking out in fear of losing the little time we had with that precious soul...that was all defeated in the pavement.

IF you ever have to go through a tragedy... A hard time... something that is constantly on your mind... runnning. Really running...can solve it.

1) Get yourself a friend or two that will MAKE you accountable.
2) Buy something that makes you feel like you were BORN for this.. because you were... no matter the battle.
3) Put on a playlist that CHALLENGES and UPLIFTS you.
4) Wear NO makeup. Be volnerable.. It's YOU, GOD, and your accountability partner.
5) Tell yourself before you leave.. in the mirror of your car... you CAN do this.. and you WILL become better today. YOU can.. YOU will. end of story.
6) PRAY. Pray that all of your problems seem small compared to that NEXT light post.. the NEXT street sign.. and conquer it.
7) RUN. Walk. JOG. Do what you can, and overcome time and distance.


There is not a thing in this world greater than music, silence, speed, and vision.

This friday marks 6 weeks since I gave birth to the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in this world. It is also the day that I will challenge myself to run farther than before.. become faster.. stronger, and more loving than ever.

IF running is not your comfort.. your safe haven as it is mine... find something you can do that challenges your body, mind, and soul.. and do it. If we were meant to be stagnant.. we wouldn't have been created with Arm, Legs, or a voice.

Find your challenge.. and please.. OVERCOME.

and to the ladies who ARE my PT soul-sisters... TY... TY for breathing life where it never was. You girls are my entire life <3

PT<3