Photo Heart Connection: The Blessings of Cross Country

The end of the month brings the opportunity to participate in Kat's Photo Heart Connection by going through my photographs and choosing the one which strikes the deepest chord in my heart. This month, I have two contenders, both from Clara's cross country season.

"Coaching Clara"

I have to admit that one reason this photograph is on my short list is because I really like the composition and lighting. But there's more than the technical here. I love how it captures a real moment. Clara with her Coach; the other girls practicing their run-outs. It's unposed. It's real. And then there's the emotional connection. Coach Farnz trying to reach into Clara's soul to calm her down, to reassure her that she can do this, to run fast, run for fun. Their relationship has been a bit fraught, but in this moment, there's an undeniable connection. Caught on camera and frozen in time.

"My All-League Girl"

And then there's this photograph. It's a perfectly serviceable, posed shot of the seven runners from our team who earned all-league honors by finishing in the top 15 at the league championship meet. But every time I look at it, my heart sings. I am so happy to see Clara with this group of shiny, happy, high-achieving kids. And not just with them - she's part of them. When I look at this photograph, I see her realizing her potential. I see a bright, shiny future for my all-league girl, and I marvel at the power of a photograph to make me smile so broadly.

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These photographs are offered as my contribution to Photo-Heart Connection.

To see the other offerings this month, go to this link.

And, let me know, which photo do you think should be my final choice?

Chatting about the Holidays and Dec. Daily over a Cup of Tea

Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams hosts a monthly gathering where bloggers can sit and have a virtual chat over a cup of tea. This month, she's chatting about the upcoming holidays. And I'd love to sit down and chat with you about the same thing. I'd start by showing you my latest Christmas acquisition. I saw it in the store last weekend and couldn't pass it up, even though it wasn't yet December and we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

I bought it because this year I'm feeling pretty festive, and I wanted to start decorating early. Next I'd show you a couple of pages from my December Daily album. Here are the pages for December 1. 

The journaling on the bottom of the second page reads "Sunday, Dec. 1.  December began just as the cross-country season ended.  We spent Thanksgiving at the Cargases enjoying a brief visit with Henry home from college. Clara and I spent Friday and Saturday in Fresno where she competed in the California State Championships and ran her best race of the season. By today, we were ready for a quiet day around the house. One season ends, a new one begins."  On the upper left journaling strips, I wrote about our sleepy winter day: "On December 1, we did homework, went to E.F. (our gym); checked out college websites to see if Clara could run there; did laundry; ate stuffed squash and watched The Walking Dead." I'm going to put this photograph on the first page. And here's the photograph I plan to feature on my December 2 page:

It's a photograph of the wonderful Christmas cards I got today from blog friends and a super cute ornament as a thank-you for hosting the photography scavenger hunt. I'm also going to put our Christmas card on this page. The journaling for Dec. 2 reads "I received my first Christmas cards today, as well as a really cute ornament. This spurred me to order our Christmas cards."
If you had time to have another cup of tea and chat some more, I'd share with you the introductory page of my December Daily album:

The journaling reads simply "Life is Good. A record of the everyday joys of our life this holiday season. "  I'd tell you that as much as I am feeling excited and festive this year, I still sometimes feel haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past. Last year our lives were in such tumult, and the memories return when I find the box of Christmas cards I ordered last year and never sent or remember shopping for our first artificial tree because I knew we could not make it out to the tree farm. I'd tell you that building my pages for December Daily 2013, writing the journaling, sticking down the cute embellishments and applying wash tape, always make me feel better. As does chatting with good friends. Over tea (virtual or otherwise). And finally, I'd ask if you have any holiday news to share . . . 

Clara's Precious Cape

Clara had a fantastic weekend at the California State Championship Cross Country Meet! She ran her best race of the year - covering 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in 19:40, for a pace of 6:20/mile. She finished 40th in her division (and as the 8th fastest sophomore). That's out of all runners in Division Four schools in the entire state of California. I am so proud of her! She didn't earn a precious medal, but she did earn a precious cape.

 

You see every year, the team makes capes for the state qualifiers. They have a cape ceremony on Friday night. And the runners wear them for warm-ups, etc. on Saturday. 

Clara loves her cape, as do all the runners on the team. It's definitely the newest precious item in our household.  Cross country season is over, but as the girls run off into the sunset, at least they will always have their capes to remember the 2013 season.

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This story is presented as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday 2013 - Pick your Precious. For other precious stories, go to this link.

Cross Country Stories: Logan

This is Logan, our top boys's runner. You might guess by looking at him that he's fast. And you'd be right.  In fact, he won every single race in the Peninsula Athletic League this season.

Here he is going through a victory tunnel created by his teammates to receive his first place medal at the league championship meet. What you might not be able to tell by the first photograph is how smart he is (his current gpa is 4.30). Or how beloved he is. But you can see that in this picture.

The cute blonde runner applauding is his girlfriend. I love the way she's looking at him.

And then there's this photograph, which captures the bond between a father and a son. And it's a very special bond because John is raising Logan on his own right now. A few years ago, Logan's mother Kim passed away from cancer. We've been friends with their family for years because Logan and Henry played baseball together. I remember speaking at Kim's memorial service, and I think of her every time I see Logan step up to receive an award.  When I look at this photograph, I almost feel her presence. I know she'll be with us in spirit this weekend cheering for Logan, as he makes her and everyone else in our community proud.
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My daughter Clara will be completing her first season of high school cross country this weekend when the team competes at the California State Cross Country Championships. She and I will be traveling with the team and staying for two days. To celebrate qualifying for State, I thought I would mark the weekend by posting a few cross country stories. I hope you enjoy them.

Cross-Country Stories: Team Work

My daughter Clara will be completing her first season of high school cross country this weekend when the team competes at the California State Cross Country Championships. The meet is held in Fresno on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, and she and I will be traveling with the team and staying there for a few days. To celebrate qualifying for State, I thought I would mark the weekend by posting a few cross country stories. I hope you enjoy them.
In order to do well at cross country, there needs to be team work. Typically seven runners participate in the 3-mile varsity race, and the top five finishers "score."  In a cross-country race, the low score wins. A runner's score is equivalent to the place in which she crosses the finish line. So, a perfect score is 15 (the top five runners come in 1st-5th place). Although the 6th and 7th runners don't score, they can affect the scores of other teams by finishing fast and claiming some of the lower finishing positions. 
In order to qualify for the State Championships, the girls had to be one of the top four teams at the Central Coast Section Championship Meet (and they had to qualify for the CCS Championships by doing well at the Peninsula Athletic League Championship Meet). Qualifying for CCS was easy. Qualifying for State, not so much. 
Carmen C., our top runner, ran her typical fast race and placed 8th. But two of our team's other top runners were battling injuries (including Clara - notice her knee brace). Yet they pushed through.  Clara, whose been finishing as our second runner for the last few meets, actually fell down at about mile 2.5 when her knee gave way. She says that a couple of runners from other schools smiled at her misfortune.  She may or may not have sworn at them. She definitely got up. And she definitely passed them. Because she's that competitive. Clara was upset that she couldn't run as fast as she normally does. She finished as the third runner for our team in 20th place. Kyleen, typically our second or third place runner, ran through pain to score as our fourth runner across the finish line in 31st place.  Luckily, their teammates were stepping up. Carmen Z., our second runner across the finish line, ran a fantastic race and placed 14th. And Cleome, who only occasionally runs Varsity, ran the race of her life to complete our top five, finishing 32nd. The team's total score was 105, good for third place and a berth in the State Championship Meet! The winning team scored 31 points; second place, 97;  and the fourth place team came in at 136. The team would not have qualified if the hobbled runners hadn't persevered or if the other runners hadn't stepped up. 
So proud of the girls individually and, more importantly, as a team for working together so that we can spend Thanksgiving weekend together in Fresno.

Giving Thanks and Being Grateful

During November, many bloggers have been offering daily posts of gratitude. I didn't do that this year, but I did create a gratitude journal last year.  Today, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm posting a few of my favorite pages from the journal.

Gratitude is the music of the heart,when its chords are swept by the breeze of kindness.

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

 Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

You can click on this link to see all the pages from last year's Gratitude Journal.
Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Be Like Mike

Earlier this month, my friend Mike posted on faceboook that he wanted to challenge himself to try new things outside his comfort zone and asked friends to suggest things for him to do. Right away, a mutual friend suggested that he come help her with her bee hive. He said yes!

I asked Mike if sketching and drawing were outside his comfort zone, and he said "definitely." I suggested a lesson in drawing faces, and he agreed.  This morning we met for coffee, and I taught him some of the basics of drawing a face. We discussed the importance of creativity, of overcoming embarrassment and silencing the inner critic. I left the cafe with this pencil sketch, which I later turned in to the art journal page up top.

It's the first time in a while that I've sat down and done anything creative, and it felt really good! Once again, I was reminded that when I offer to do something to help a friend,  I usually receive more than I give.