The Hot Chocolate Parable

From an email my sister Camilla sent:

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.
While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Canyonlands Half Marathon

Abi, in the car on the drive down to Moab. Isn't she beautiful?

The night before, planning our pre-race strategies during a game of Blokus

(Blokus is a great board game by the way)

THE MORNING OF THE RUN

Getting our shoe clips in place.

Grant and Tiff all Ready to go. Actually Grant was just trying on the shirt and hat for size - he changed out of them and saved their runway debut for a different occasion. Nice florescent yellow hat though, Grant!

Glad someone got to sleep in... She'll be a little shocked when she wakes up and realizes her only source of nourishment is gone.

After the Race, Bib number 3914 is glad to be reunited with her biggest fan.

*Victory Kiss* Looks like it was a rough morning for Abi too.
("Where's my mother?!?!" Thanks for taking care of her Beka!)

Nursing Abi by the tree. Grant Moroni Hibbert, standing tall and strong and seemingly unscathed by the run. No fair.

So these are the pictures Beka took of Grant and I when we ran in the 33rd annual Canyonlands Half Marathon. 13.1 miles baby. I survived the event and now after over a month of looking back it wasn't that bad. Although I'm glad I'm not in training right now. I have been doing 20 minute 2 mile runs four or five times a week, so I'm all for exercising, but I'm glad I don't have to run for 2+ hours with a nursing baby waiting for me at home. Although I think that was what made Grant and I get such a good race time (considering this was our very first long run race ever), cause there was a nursing baby probably crying at the finish line. I think Grant would have gotten a much better time if he hadn't been slowing his pace for me. So we ran the 13.1 miles in 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 42 seconds. That's a pace of 8:40, which is faster than what I averaged while training. I came in 792 overall out of 2912. Maybe next year I'll do the 5 mile, I bet I could win that one! I might do the 3 mile run for the Salt Lake Marathon... it's this Saturday, I have a few more days to decide to sign up. Just trying to decide if I wanna pay someone $40 to let me run myself into the ground.

"Last Lecture"

This is a great clip on YouTube of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture". I'd love to comment on it, but wouldn't you know, as soon as I sit down to the computer Abi starts screaming again. I just put her down too, she like takes 5 minute naps, seriously. Sheesh! So that's why I never get around to writing on this blog. But trust me, I think of lots of profound things everyday. Someday I hope my thoughts get put in writing, but as for now, I'm off to be a pacifier.