Zambia.

I have been best friends with Emily for a long time. I've known her even longer than that. She is like a sister to me and I love her dearly. Emily, is going on a missions trip to Zambia (in Southern Africa) with her youth group in June. The goal is to spread God's love and share his word with the people there, along with help provide for them. Zambia is one of the worlds poorest countries and Emily has been given the opportunity to go and help out. You can read more about her trip here (http://www.gofundme.com/69n1lo). Please keep her and the rest of her team in your prayers and if you feel lead, you can help her financially as well.

currently reading: The Book Thief

Most people think that there's something romantic about staying up all night to finish a book. I think it's more romantic to put the book down. Because then you'll know that in the morning you can pick up right where you left off and there's no pressure. Your book will still be marked in the same spot and you can keep reading & keep loving the story for one more day. If you had finished it the night before you'd be left lonely & tired. Here I sit, at 11:59 pm waiting for the start of a new day and I am temped to pick my book up one more time. I have a hundred or so more pages left, and I could certainly finish it. But the problem is that once I finish a book I never know what to read next. & that's why there's huge time gaps in between the things I read. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

off track, on track.

So, running is coming along quite slowly. The weather has been really cold and snowy and because I run outside I haven't been able to go out and train for a while. Like, 2 weeks a while. It's been reeeeaallly bad. We've gotten like a foot of snow this past week. It's actually been quite annoying.
But on another note, I've been writing and reading more than I have been lately. It's been quite nice. I read Looking for Alaska by John Green. It was nothing short of perfect. Looking for Alaska was much better than The Fault in Out Stars, the other book I read by him. I am much intrigued by his writings and would like to read more of them. He writes in such a way to tug at your soul and make you feel and feel deeply. John forces you to put yourself in the character's shoes and be in the novel. He makes you think about you and dig deep inside. Looking for Alaska was about a boy who loved last words. That being so there was a lot of quotations in this novel. I absolutely love quotations. Words that come from people's souls that are so personal mean so much. They're a glimpse into someone's life and heart and world and I think they're so special. Edna St. Vincent said, "Night falls fast. Today is in the past." And that's my favorite quote from that novel. It's beautiful and real in a sad and lonely sort of way. 
In Looking for Alaska, Alaska has a room full of books. She claims to have only read a third of them. That makes me feel better because you know something? I have a room full of books, and I've only read a third of them. Maybe that makes me optimistic, well, I like to think so. 

“She said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth."
"Um, okay. So what is it?"
"Suffering," she said. "Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?... Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.” 
- John Green in Looking for Alaska on the labyrinth of life. 

cold & colder.

Well today's run (3.5 miles) was SO cold. And it's probably a bad thing that everytime I get back and am freezing I curl up into a ball on the floor and shiver, after stretching of course. Anyways, I came back from my run and went to my Piper devotional app because it always has an encouraging verse. Today's was: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27) And it was a nice little reminder that I am not running this race alone, nor am I running the race of life alone. Christ is always with us and he promises to never leave us. I don't know about you, but God has never broken a promise for me. He always comes through and is the only person we can count on 100% of the time. So whether you're training for a triathlon or you have a big test coming up, you've got something you can rely on. And on the plus side, he wants you to rely on him. You're not a burden.