It hurts...

...because the air is zero temperature, the smells are beginning to bloom, the foothills are beginning to green, and the mountain tops are capped with snow--I just want to go running, but instead I need to finish my final papers. It hurts, but it's okay, Wednesday will come :)

Easter Dinner Conversation with my Family

-Hottie McHottenstein: Dean's biggest crush in American Government
-Jesse breaking the Manscill Curse
-Tanner being home schooled in Israel (yeah, right--he needs friends)
-Dad instructing Jami on the art of landscaping
-Jami's update on our neighbors we use to live next to in New York
-My mom's paper route
-Easter traditions (my dad made up a few new ones this year)
-Trevor Harmon... he just asked Kaitlyn to prom... need I say more.
-How mom treated us when we were sick growing-up (she was always good at saying, "get-up and just go to school")

Transending Intrigue

Content on walking the hall of fatigue
For it's ballad is one I love and seek
Tiredness wakes but mercy claims intrigue
Tis all worthwhile when I reach the peak

Heavenly rays fall gently upon my face
Rest ensues, rejuvenation enters and stays
It sets the tone pulling me a quiet pace
Too beautiful to look away, please,stop and gaze

Sojourned and journeyed, grateful and ready
I forge and look forward to what lies ahead
No stoppage time here, mercy claims fatigue
Content on walking the hall of intrigue

I love the sun...

...on my legs during my long run last Saturday

...on my face as I finished lunch at Rock Canyon Park

...keeping me warm as I walked home from school yesterday

...when it brings back memories of long runs and quiet hikes

...on a hot rock I'm climbing

Remembering Sayed Saif

A dear friend of mine, Dr. Sayed Saif, passed away February 16, 2009. I met Dr. Saif last summer when I traveled to Egypt to help out a US NGO. I'll never forget the first time I met Dr. Saif. I was taken to his home and they sat me in a room to wait for him to come home. When he entered the room he graciously shook my hand and then told me that this was my home and that I was his son and that if there was anything that I needed to just ask. I felt his sincerity and the love that he had for me instantly. Over the next few weeks I had many opportunities to sit and talk with him about the my beliefs, Muslim beliefs, and life in general--those were very special moments for me. Dr. Saif will not only be missed by but by thousand if not millions of people around the world. To honor him I am reposting a post that I wrote about him:

Dr. Saif is a man that I deeply, deeply respect. He is the head of the school of Opthalmology at Cairo University. He is a devout Muslim who is constantly seeking to do what is right as well as to serve others, especially those who cannot afford eye care. He spends at least 40% (my own guesstimate) of his time checking the eyes for those who cannot afford it. He often will see a patient and learn that they cannot afford the medicine, eye glasses, or surgery that he prescribes. Instead of telling them good-luck with a pat on the shoulder, he absorbs the cost himself so that all that come to him can have proper eye care.

For over 40 years he has traveled to the poor areas of Egypt and with other doctors he exams hundred of people per visit, pays for their surgeries, and at times glasses. All of these visits are on his or his son's dime (not to mention time, which is the most valuable commodity).

Currently there is a rampant endemic of trachoma in Egypt. Years ago Dr. Saif engineered a solution that helps eliminate this disease from the person who uses the eye drops. Trachoma in many places has now been eradicated. Dr. Saif is well known in Egypt. He is respected and revered amongst many, many people, including myself. His son is now a wit behind him.

February 23, 2008

Inspired and remembered--I ask for details
Happy and warm--I carefully walk home
Hurried and distant--I push the shopping cart
Hesitant and planning--I get lost in a building
Confused and surprised--My legs start to ache
Pensive and submissive--What is the answer
Dizzy and lightheaded--my head hits the pillow
Morning and sunshine--I can't wait to start over

Waiting For the Sky to Turn Pink

About a hundred amazing thing happened yesterday, but my Sunday highlight had to be watching the sunset with my little three year-old niece, Sydney. My brother, Jesse, just returned home from his mission so he spoke in church. After church my family got together to spend time together and I think my nieces wore everyone out asking them to come and jump on the tramp with them--it was quite humorous. Towards the end of the evening our family was sitting on the back porch and I asked my little niece Sydney if she wanted to watch the sky turn pink with me. She climbed up into my lap and I told her stories until the sun tucked itself behind the mountains. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a sunset, and there definitely wasn't any pink, but I loved that little moment waiting for the sky to turn pink.