Uphill idealist

Cups for Change is a grass roots and world aware effort to raise funds for the poor, help build our local church and promote local art talent. Tony (who makes the cups) has a hair salon on 2nd street in Jamestown, NY directly down from Chautauqua Music. He has been working with pottery for about 2 years now and has some of his cups being used in local shops and coffee shops. Upon gaining greater awareness of the food shortages worldwide ( esp. in Haiti and Egypt) I was told about the organization Food for the poor . They have been working for 26 years to feed the poorest communities throughout the world! At our meeting this Tuesday, we decided to try to sell Tony's cups for $8.00 each, with $4 going back to Tony, $2 going to Food for the Poor and $2 going to our ministry at WPC locally. If you are interested in purchasing a cup please drop me a line or contact us via our website information. It's our hope that this effort will help promote local arts, community ministry and ...

Art by He qi What's in a name? A while ago I was chatting with a friend about what was going on in her life and she was asking about me as well. There was an exchange of information, emotion and even story. She shared anecdotes from her life and eventually we came to a discussion about our names. She has been married for several years and when she was getting married she decided to hyphenate her maiden and married name. She was surprised however when I told her my maiden name had been Rain. "What? I thought your maiden name was Lamont!" I simply explained than when I got married, I decided to drop my maiden name, add my husband's name and retain my given first and middle names. I explained why my Mom had given me my middle name (after a high school friend that she looked up to.) and was ready to go on to the next topic of discussion when she stammered," I though I knew who you were, but your name isn't what I thought it was!" Then she jokingly added, ...

I came across a neat website-blogger combo that I decided to use for my "Couch to 5k" plan as there were over 400 people working on the same exercise effort! It was encouraging that there were so many people out there that have already gone through all the weekly challenges and have completed the plan! (Especially when right now I can't fathom running for 20 minutes straight!) Anyhow, I digress. Go and check out 43 things when you have a chance - there are lots of people setting goals and have hopes that they are working towards. Your goal may be on the list - you don't have to do it alone!

After much consideration and waffling about why I don’t exercise enough and so on ( the gym I had attended faithfully even burnt down! No joking – but that was months and months ago.) I came across the “Couch to 5k running plan” and decided to give it a go. Last week, I worked out according to plan 3x’s and got a few extra walks in with some friends. The third workout – at an indoor track, seemed to be the most difficult so far. Possibly the difference in surface and there were many other walkers and a few runners to contend with. I somehow really seem to prefer the outdoor runs – even in this rainy spring weather. Although I ran/walked yesterday I went out again today to test out my my new New Balance shoes and arch supports – and it went well. I was able to do most of the 90 second sets alright. The hardest falling on a very steep hill. This one took the longest to recover from, but last week I never would have attempted to try jogging up that incline. So here’s to week two – is ther...

Last night, I had a really strange dream where I was in my parents old home (haven't been there for almost 20 years). We were having a yard sale with all kind of amazing stuff - hybrid trucks, exercise spa machines and such. There was an amazing stone sculpture in the center of the circle drive and it was being sandblasted to reveal it's true beauty. Then out of the wood shop comes zombies. Yes, zombies. Usually whenever anyone says - "oh let's watch a zombie movie", I run in the other direction. But for some reason, I wasn't afraid in my dream. In fact, I had a medicine packet that could restore the "zombies" to health! So in my dream, I was selling all the cool stuff ( except for the hybrid 4X4 - I told my parents i needed that to replace my old car) - and vaccinating the zombies as they came out of the dark places of the basement. At one point in the dream I was walking about and there was a heaviness I was experiencing - someone shouted to me - ...

Can be a big challenge - but I’m trying to do what I can. I came across this article, From the couch to a 5k in two months I’m thinking on giving this plan a try as i tried the workout for today and I did better than I expected. If anyone would like to join me on this adventure, that would be great - the more the merrier ... and healthier! Tara

For the first time in what seems forever, I read a book in one sitting last night. I kept the light on till late, propped up the pillows and evaded sleep for a few hours to join Melinda for her freshman year in high school. The review on the cover said, " An uncanny funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, SPEAK will hold readers from first word to last. - THE HORN BOOK, starred review." They were telling the truth. This book was a birthday gift for my daughter,( who turned 15 yesterday and is a high school freshman)and I remembered that I had another copy somewhere in my books at home. It was only after reading the new copy that I searched for the other edition. I read the inscription of a now grown, once Melinda-like student that in 2004, gave me a copy of this book to read - sadly I was too distracted at the time to read it. I'm sorry that it took so long for me to get to this story. So much of Melinda's story is something we all can relate to: looking for acce...