Community

There's a dent in the side of the house
 where the tree originally struck.

 Recently, I was in northern Utah when a tornado struck. I was in Layton, and although the tornado didn't touch down there, sustained winds were 50-100 mph. It blew in, swirling like a giant leafy stew, bringing rain along with it.

Garbage cans sailed up the streets, the

debris

neighbor's trampoline blew up over the fence, along the side of my sister's house ending in a mangled mess in the tree in her front yard. Trees uprooted, or split, shingles blew, power lines were down, traffic was a nightmare.

truck hauling away debris

But here's what blew me away--pardon the pun--the storm had no sooner hit than my nephews grabbed their gear and headed into the pouring rain to start the cleanup. FIVE HOURS later they returned. They are amazing. For the next three days, they and the people in the community joined the

another lost tree

downed fence

cleanup effort with trucks, chainsaws, man power, donuts, pizza, water bottles, traffic directors, cheerleaders, little kids, big kids, grandparents. It still overwhelms my senses and makes me

rainbow after the storm

emotional. This is a tribute to the workers big and small, to the example this community is to the world. Get out and get it done. Don't wait for someone else to solve the problem (and government can never solve a problem as efficiently as YOU can). Way to go Team Layton!

Inspiration

As youth, we put up posters and quotes and pictures that inspired us. From music stars to sports teams, from mythical animals to movie sensations and sayings that we connected with. Our favorite things fighting for a space to breathe on our walls.

Red Gate at Miyajima Japan

As adults, do we surround ourselves with things that uplift and inspire? I love the concept of vision boards. It's the bedroom wall of our youth squashed into a much smaller space. Your board could be on a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" card stock or a 12" x 12" magnetic board, or even a 3' x 4' poster. What would be on it?

Each of us is unique and has our own set of challenges and abilities. But know this, you, YOU are amazing in your own way. Believe in yourself. I believe in you, I believe you can overcome and achieve great things. Sometimes we need help and sometimes we need to extend help.

I hope through my writing that I might lift and inspire. May you also. Write On my friends.

The Journey of a Thousand Days

On our trip to Japan, we flew Hawaiian Airlines. (We love HA). The in-flight magazine, Hana-Hou, had an article titled Runner of a Thousand Days by Dave Choo.

It's an amazing tale of a Buddhist priest, Ryojun Shionuma, who lives in the mountains above Nara, Japan.

We meet him as a runner of the Honolulu Marathon. Although he has never run a marathon, he has completed the two most difficult tests of the Shugendo sect of Buddhism to which he belongs (Shugendo literally means, 'the path of training and testing'). The first--considered the hardest--is the Omine Sennichi Kaihogyo. It means, 'One Thousand Days trekking on Mount Omine.' It isn't a thousand continuous days as the trail is only open from May 3 to September 22. But it is continuous in that it is every single one of those days for the roughly nine years it takes to complete the thousand days. Completing this daily, thirty mile hike for this test of strength and endurance is equivalent to circling the earth one and a quarter times and only one other person has ever completed it. Wow. I was excited about the day we walked thirteen miles; I can't imagine going thirty. Daily.

Shionuma also completed another feat which I won't go into but will just say people have died trying to complete it. You can check out the complete article if you want to read about it. But for today, I just want to focus on the daily trek.

Writing is hard. Doing it daily for a thousand days. Harder. (For some of us it seems impossible). But we can accomplish difficult things. He didn't give up when he got to the middle and nothing made any sense anymore. He didn't give up when the scene didn't quite work out the way he wanted. He persevered and put one foot in front of the other until the journey was done.

Don't give up, keep writing, keep putting one word after the other--even if it seems like drivel. Keep at it, write good words, inspire greatness, and like Shionuma, there is an end to your journey (but it's just the beginning of the next one).

Write On my friends!


*I neglected to take the magazine which was the April/May issue of Hana Hou and the return flight was in June. You can check it out, but the article about Ryojun Shionuma didn't have a link at this posting (the link above is to another blog where the complete article is posted).

* Image from: http://shionuma-ryojun.jp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/15.jpg