health

Mourning Together With Coyotes Is Healthy

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment

My dog is smarter than he looks.

I mean, he doesn’t look that smart when the fire engine or the coyotes are howling outside, and our dog howls along with them.

Does he not know he is not a fire truck? Or a coyote?

But he is definitely smarter than he looks.

For example, once on a walk, I suddenly heard coyotes howling very close to us. (There is a real world outside of LA where actual trees and flowers exist!).

I quickly grabbed onto his leash. I was certain my fluffy mini-golden doodle would head for the middle of the pack and howl along with them, making his dog dreams a reality (Being called a “doodle” is never cool in coyote society. Being called “fluffy” doesn’t help either. Or “mini.”)

But instead, tail between his legs, he hunkered down and ran home, me stumbling along behind him.

When we got safely inside, and he was protected by a locked door, he opened his mouth wide, and howled in freedom, just one of the pack.

He somehow knew that the coyotes would eat him if they got a chance. But that didn’t stop him from also knowing that mourning with others is healthy.

I feel the same way actually.

I know I will never be accepted into a pack of coyotes.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I want to learn to mourn, to lament in my community with the freedom of a coyote.

“. . . weep with those who weep” Ancient Text

You may think you’ve heard coyotes wail because you watched a John Wayne movie once, but the lamenting, prolonged howl of a group of coyotes is really nothing like that.

Coyotes send shivers down your spine when you hear them mournfully wailing.

You kind of think they’ll shut up after a few minutes but they don’t. It can go on for hours, sometimes in the middle of the day.

“What in the world are they crying about?” I finally wondered.

Coyotes mourn in packs in the fall, when a younger coyote sets off on his own. (I read that on the internet*.)

And so this is what we can learn from coyotes:

1. They mourn together as a group and out loud.

2. They mourn about one thing, and then gracefully interweave their sadness to other stuff that is also breaking their little hearts. (Give me a break here – I know we can’t read the minds of coyotes, but this is my interpretation of what they’re saying. Do you have a better idea of what coyotes think about when they mourn in the fall? No, I thought not!)

3. This grieving process helps them. I mean most of the time coyotes are pretty well-adjusted, right? 50% of them are not sucking back Prozac or the equivalent, like us humans. Maybe we can learn from them.

I’ll explain what we can learn next time.

* Scientific Information Source

The Nature Conservancy: “There’s also a lot of contradictory information – and complete nonsense – written about coyotes.”

Blogpost Footnotes

No! I’m not a coyote-ologist or whatever that’s called. No! I’ve never even studied coyotes. Why do you ask?

Oh! I did read a really funny Canadian classic book once called Never Cry Wolf, and wolves are sort of like coyotes, I think. Does that count?

Anyway, I know the next blog post outlining what I’ve learned from coyotes will help you.

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

Does Your Life Inspire Others To Soar?

/ Lori Lawe / 3 Comments

Here’s a picture taken just after I completed a triathlon.

I’m the one in the hat. You can also tell which one is me because I’m the one that is “fit looking”. Just sayin’. Well, at least I should say that I’m the one that looks “fitter than I was”. Whatever.

Yes! We are wearing matching shirts! I completed this triathlon as a memorial for my dad, who passed away not long ago, and who inspired us all in physical strength by completing many triathlons.

Leaders inspire others by their examples.

. . . lead them by your own good example says the ancient text

How will our lives inspire others who are watching us, even though we don’t see them looking our way? By our example. Are you awake to who God is calling you to become?

In the last post, we talked about how God often wants to wake us up to His vision for our lives, if our ears are screwed on tight enough to hear Him.

God may be blowing open your expectations of what He can do through your life if you sense any of the following:

1) God is whispering about something you know you could never accomplish on your own strength.

2) God seems to envelop you in love, even for just a moment, or to touch your heart with His invisible love. With Him as the wind, holding up your wings, He can move mountains.

3) God is trying to wake you. He stands next to your bedside, gently nudging you. He picked up your ears off the floor. Will you put them on?

What does He see when He looks at you? Ask Him! If you don’t hear His gentle whisper, continue reading The Message. Every word read helps put a bit more glue on our ears, ever ready to fall off.

How may God be calling you to set an example for others of a life well lived?

Abba, continue to speak in ways that we can finally grasp the truth that You have much, much bigger plans for our lives than we do, with You at the helm, guiding us for Your kingdom purposes. Help us to be able to hear You more clearly, we pray. Keep our ears screwed on tight.

God Encourages Us To Complete The Triathlon?

/ Lori Lawe / 4 Comments

While my back still felt like an old lady’s, when I had to yell up at people so they could hear me as I spoke to their waist, hunched over, I announced I would do a triathlon.

“Well . . . if I can walk, I will do a triathlon,” I clarified.

This annoying back problem has GOT to get better someday, right?

And it did get better, praise be to God.

It didn’t help that the little kid I was playing with at the family dinner jumped on my back in a fit of fun.

My community gathered around me that same night and cared for me, lifting me to God in prayer.

My back felt better after that night than it had in a long, long time.

So, yup, time to do a triathlon.

I didn’t have as much time to train as I had intended, but I thought the bike part was about 10 km?

I was shocked as I picked up my bib the day before the race to learn that the bike part was 20 km. Could my back even handle being on a bike that long?

My husband coached me, like a parent coaching a small child. I needed some direction. “Now remember,” he said slowly, “You have your goals in the wrong order.” He coached me by holding up a finger for each goal. “The most important goal is not to get hurt,” he said. I had relegated that goal to Goal #3. He was right.

But in the pool, I felt God nudging me to swim faster (!). What does God care about an obscure triathlon where a bunch of fairly fit middle-aged people do their exercises?

(There were actually some young and very fit people there who definitely upped the cool factor of the race. Just sayin’. I’m sure I would have beaten John in the race to Jesus’ tomb too. Just sayin’. Not that that matters OF COURSE, but for those who are interested, I thought you should know).

Then I realized that God was speaking to me during this triathlon because God cares about everything we do. We can’t relegate Jesus to an hour on Sunday. Everything is an opportunity to grow closer to Him, if we can find our ears and screw them on.

Maybe there was a lesson here too, while completing this triathlon, that He wanted to nail through my thick skull, a lesson that wouldn’t sink into my brain any other way, perhaps.

And I went further and faster than I thought I could.

. . . THAN I THOUGHT I COULD.

How else are we limiting ourselves with what God wants to do through us?

What race is God asking you to enter that is too far for you to go, or that you are too slow to finish?

Are your ears lying on the floor, too?

Samuel took his flask of oil and anointed [David, the shepherd boy, as king], with his brothers standing around, watching. The Spirit of God entered David like a rush of wind, God vitally empowering him for the rest of his life. The Message

Ways that God may be trying to wake us, trying to translate His words into a language we can understand, trying to encourage us to pick up our ears, screw them on, and listen to His vision for our lives will be discussed in the next post.

I Choose Slow Death! Now, Go Away!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment

We are not seeking perfection on our journeys but progress.

And progress always begins with honesty.

The food that we eat is probably crap.

People in Canada consume almost 50% of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods . . .

Highly processed foods accounted for two-thirds of the calories consumed by youth. . .

We all may need to change our diets a bit.

No!

We hold our hands over our eyes! We don’t want to see! We sneak an ultra-processed potato chip into our mouth. Hmmm… heaven. Potato chip heaven.

I know that you know and that I know that, “Ultra-processed food is probably bad for us.” And we agree with our friends. We all argue on the same side of the debate. We all argue for less processed food. Yes, processed food is ridiculous! We agree.

We leave their house and stop on the way to the grocery store to pick up Doritos, Nestle chocolate chip cookies, chocolate bars, and pop. Why?

Our hearts.

Our brains know a little.

Enough to spout off the assurances that WE KNOW that ultra-processed food is probably bad for us, at least too much of it is. And who eats too much? The person down the street, the one who looks less healthy than us and who rarely leaves her house probably eats too much processed food, we ascertain. But not me. I eat less, we reason and so I’m fine.

Do we live in denial?

Our hearts do not REALLY agree with our minds. And our minds only know one or two facts about processed foods. We haven’t dug into the literature, sat there for a while, and let it really sink in.

Why? Because our eyes are closed. We don’t WANT to see. We like Cheezies, chicken nuggets, and Mars bars. GO AWAY.

We flip the channel and forget about this conversation. Our TV show is only infrequently interrupted by upbeat, colorful ads suggesting we enjoy Mcdonalds, Wendy’s, and A&W. That looks good, we think without thinking. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have lunch there. The program resumes, and we feel refreshed as we tumble into bed.

What if we are asleep before we climb into bed? What if we have been asleep our entire lives?

What if the food we crave doesn’t really taste GOOD, but we are addicted to sugar, processed fat, and salt?

What if enjoying healthy food is a learned skill?

What if, in two years, we remember what we eat regularly now, and that food makes us feel ill?

Because it probably should.

Because it probably is making us ill.

Ready, listening?

Ready for a journey, friend? Every journey begins with the first step. We have a long road ahead of us. But there are friends, here, in this community to cheer us on, to celebrate our first steps.

We have been there too, and are holding your arm, cheering with you as you learn to walk a little more securely and stably on your own, as you then help your child along, to make one more right choice, to choose life instead of death.

Ready to set aside your cola for a few hours? Come join us, friend, as we take steps, together, toward our future health. Food is one of the very few places where every person has influence. Let your light shine, helping others to walk a little further before sitting down with a full box of Oreos.

No one here judges us. But every journey starts with a first step. And the best first step is to peel our hands off of our eyes. Are you ready to see, yet, how you have been deceived?

It’s time we find a better way, together, and learn to soar, friend.

Come . . . —buy and eat! …Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. The Message

God, how may we be blind regarding honesty in our food habits? Can you please help us to WANT to choose that which brings life, both with physical and spiritual food?