Run, Write, Read: A 30-day Challenge

It's June 1st.  And a birthday month, at that.  It's a good time to shift gears having nearly completed the busy season at work.  Now it's time to give a little attention to the life that has been neglected for too many week.

Run: Pre-busy season my distance was increasing at nice increments.  I have no real desire to register for a race as it's one more committed day on the calendar and money I'd rather use for books or coffee, but I do want to push past the standard almost-three-miles route that I have done for years. Using a 10-K training app I was making nice progress - and then came three weeks of travel, food poisoning, crazy viral respiratory illness, and another week of travel.  Upon arrival home the buds had burst into foliage and the air was rich with pollen and humidity.  Ug.  It's been slow and arduous to even make peace with the Old Standard Three - but it is only day one of thirty!

Write:  This is it.  This is putting lines on "paper," "penciling" thoughts, and "smithing" words.  The only way to write more is to write more.  And this in only day one of thirty!

Read:  An annual goal is to read at least fifty book; I'm at twelve.  My mind is disengaged and lazy.  My eyes seems not to see nor my brain to process.  There is only one way to move past this block and that is to read.  Turn off the computer, the smart phone.  Put down the magazine.  Pick up a book and begin to read.  While commuting, turn off talk radio and turn on an audio book.  So at the bedside I have stacked.

1. The Forty-Day Word Fast:  A spiritual journey to eliminate toxic words from your life by Tim Cameron (Thank you Traci for the recommendation)
2. The Nurses:  A year of secrets, drama, and miracles with the heroes of the hospital by Alexandra Robbins (I saw it at a bookshop, took a picture, and got it from the library)
3. Change to Chains: The 6000 year quest for control, Vol 1: Rise of the republic by William J Federer (I found it on my bookshelf, not sure where it came from.)
4. Be Light: Shining God's beauty, truth, and hope into a darkened world by Samuel Rodriguez (Thank you Glenn for the recommendation)
5. I Stand at the Door and Knock by Corrie ten Boom (A gift from Julie S. - thank you!)
6. Michael Vey: Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans (Reading to my nephew.)
7. And for the commute, I just ordered from the library 41 by George W. Bush.

It will be interesting to see if any of these get finished or if others get added to the list of half-reads. I'm optimistic since it is only day one of thirty!