Catholic Aerobics: Sit, Stand, Kneel, Stand, Kneel, Sit

I had a crazy busy weekend. My first big special event was on Friday and Saturday. It was a writing celebration that we sponsored for the local college. I don't want to bore you, but there were 100 people here on Friday for the event so I had to set everything up and serve lunch as well as deal with any problems that arose. It was very nuts and I didn't sit down all day, but it was exciting. And on Saturday I had to go to the college to bring the presenters lunch and clean up and wash dishes.

Saturday night I had an interesting experience. I ran on the trails behind my house up into the canyon. I had left pretty late in the evening, around 5:30 and it was just starting to get dark. I was almost up the trail to where I wanted to turn around and for the first time since I've been here I saw discarded clothing on the side of the trail. At first didn't really think about it, but then I looked more closely and noticed a couple tattered jackets and ski masks. (This is a common occurrence around here. The illegal immigrants bring backpacks and extra clothing for the journey over the border and then abandon them on the trails when they make it to the states. This way they have the protection for their trip and before they make it to the road and civilization they get rid of everything that will make them look like an illegal alien who just walked here from Mexico.)

It was so weird, because obviously the people who were wearing them were gone - they left the jackets for a reason, but I got so freaked out! I guess it's my dad always asking me about the pepper spray and also because a lady I work with and her husband were walking one day and some guys came out of the bush begging for help in Spanish. The Mexicans wouldn't leave them alone and followed them for quite a ways down the trail. I'm not saying that all illegal immigrants are always dangerous, but sometimes they are desperate and want food and water or shelter. I've also heard horror stories of people being hurt or attacked or whatever. (Maybe it's just urban legend, because it's always "I know someone who knows someone who got beat up by these illegals..." and never first hand information, but who knows really?) The bottom line is that I shouldn't be putting myself at risk.

After I saw the jackets all of the stories I have heard ran through my head and I thought to myself "What am I doing running on this trail alone?" At that point I was about 30 min. up the trail maybe 2 ½ miles from my house. I jumped off the trail, bushwhacked up to the road and ran back home that way. I definitely won't be running that far into the canyon alone ever again. Maybe from now on I have to pick a trail that is more well traveled or run on the road or whatever.

I know there's a fine line between being smart and protecting myself and being able to do what I want to do. But it's so hard. It's hard because I really am alone here. I live alone, I moved here alone and I don't have many friends yet. But as I get older I'm learning that while it's physically possible to do these things alone, it might not be very intelligent to do so. It stinks, but is true.

The good news about running is that I won't be doing it by myself much anymore. On Sunday I had Round 2 of my 2-hour trail run with Kelly. (Kelly is another recreation coordinator who works at the city pool.) I felt 100 times better than I did last week when we ran, I think mostly because I knew what to expect. I knew where all of the big hills were and how long they were. Last week I just felt like we were running straight up the side of a mountain. We also left at 7 am instead of 8 so it was much cooler and I didn't feel like I was dying of heat stroke.

Also, another lady I work with, Eileen, and I are going to run a few days a week in the morning before work. She invited me to come to her house and run from there. We started today and had a great run even though she's pretty fast. The only bad part is that I had to wake up at 5:45!!!! I honestly don't remember the last time I woke up before 6 am. Coach Kahrs always says the best way to start your day is to wake up with the sun. I can't say yet that I agree with him, but when my alarm went off the sun was just beginning to peak over the ridge and was very beautiful. What's even better is that my run is already done for the day. Maybe Coach is right after all.

On Sunday I went to church at 5 pm. I wasn't going to go because I ran in the morning and had missed the 9:00 service that I normally attend. I ended up going to a different church (because the church closer to my apt. doesn't have a Sun. evening service) and really enjoyed the mass. The gospel reading was John 12:20-33 which is a good one. (Check it out. Verse 27 was especially comforting to me) In the beginning of the passage some visiting Greeks want to meet Jesus. The priest said that St. Andrew's will be having experiences similar to this when they open the new church that they are currently building. He said we should make visitors feel at home and not like they are crashing a party. It's great advice isn't it? The process of finding a church can be very nerve racking and even a little scary. And the Catholic faith has such a structured mass that can be so confusing to outsiders. The priest told us to look around at the beginning of mass, introduce ourselves to newcomers and teach them about what he called the Catholic Aerobics: sit, stand, kneel, sit, etc... I thought it was a good lesson because Catholics can be so complacent: come to church, listen to the message, recite the proper responses - just go through the motions. Attending Mass can sometimes become a bit of a habit and seem monotonous. I loved that he gave us a challenge to pay more attention to our surroundings and to be welcoming to newcomers. "Make them feel at home and not like they're crashing a party." If all Christians could be more accomodating to people who don't understand I think we could seem more approachable and learn more too because the best way to fully understand something is to teach it to others.

This is a long post, but the last thing that I want to say is that I watched The Constant Gardener over the weekend and loved it. It made me want to do one of the following:
a) join the Peace Corps
b) buy a ticket and fly to Africa today and do something...anything to help
or
c) go back to school and become a nurse and then go to Africa.

It also made me so much more aware of the privilege of being American and made me ashamed that I'm not doing more to help. I'm still stewing over this, but let me know if you've seen the film and what you thought.