Moving forward

If you follow my posts on Facebook, you may have noticed that I post articles by Wayne Stiles. In Wayne's ministry he has encouraged me with his insights on the Bible and the connection to the Holy Land. He also shares many practical truths related to the life we live today. His perspective is upbeat and insightful. In the link below, he takes us to a place a little off the beaten path as far as tours go. Here we find the location of Bethsaida. 

Jesus did a lot of miracles here and yet the people in this town rejected him. Three of the apostles come from this area. Wayne makes a point that we may have a past which is humble or a place where we experience failures. Those failures can have a way of defining you for a lot of years. On the other hand the Lord can use those failures and lead us to victories of a completely change life.

It is possible that the hometown doesn't see it. The changes may be seen by others, but in the hometown the ghost of the failures haunt us.

Sometimes for whatever reason people can hold the past against you and cannot move on. The catch is a lot of times it's relationships that are close to you. For the three apostles who lived in Bethsaida, they were able to move on.

I think sometimes we have to do the same thing. We cannot live in our past but we have to move on. Our relationship with the Lord is dynamic and personal and God is continually working in our lives.

The idea of borders in our lives is to limit negative people and experiences so that we can embrace healthy relationships and experiences. Our past may have taught us many things, such as sin teaching us the need for a Savior and learning from our errors a different way of going about something that is more beneficial, which is an aspect of practical holiness we need to embrace. We often think of holiness in a negative restrictive fashion; but holiness can be thought of as wholesome and beneficial. If you think of sins like murder, adultery, lying, stealing, coveting which leads to negative behaviors there has to be a better way to live. So we set up borders and move ahead embracing our life and potential without the negative shackles that may come from people who are small minded.

Certainly when you think of the apostles from Bethsaida they were young men who had the rest of their lives to live. The younger you apply this the better. If you're an old guy like me what you have in mind are the days, months, years that you have left. Grab a hold of this because each day is precious. Keep walking

http://www.waynestiles.com/bethsaida-god-past-pointless/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+waynestiles+%28Wayne+Stiles+Blog%29

https://holylandphotos.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/paul-in-the-city-where-did-they-eat/

Click the link for insight on common places people ate.

Where are my readers and what they are reading, pretty cool.

Sometimes where my blog travels around the world fascinates me. Today here is where I have been.

Here you can see my readers this month. Below what they have read this month. The audience is small but interested. I know what I write about is good, but I do wish I wrote better. Thanks for reading. I will continue to work at it.

Facing our adventures of fear with love and faith

I was reading Leslie Leland Fields blog today. Leslie and her husband live on Kodiak Island, Alaska. This week there were two rescues on the island that were pretty dramatic. The Coast Guard rescues a fishing boat only to find themselves in trouble and need to be rescued too. Then there is car accident with a fire and a friend of Leslie’s risk life to save the driver in the car. 

These are exciting stories that you could build a novel around. 

Leslie had an adventure in which anyone of us could participate in. She has an elderly friend named Sophie who needs a new coat. Her husband is in the hospital. Leslie and Sophie go on a shopping adventure hoping to find a coat with not many apparent options. To each coat Sophie says no. 

Then there is a moment where is Sophie confides in Leslie she is afraid. Who would be not be afraid when you become older each hospital visit becomes more serious. So many abilities we begin to lose. Her fears are real. Leslie reassures Sophie that Jesus and others like herself will be there for Sophie. They finish their shopping with no coat bought. Sophie has been encouraged with kind words by Leslie and one of the clerks of the store. She tells Leslie to go back to the store for that one coat.

It is a simple adventure, having a winter coat for the Alaskan winter is life-saving. Leslie takes the time to love her neighbor as herself. We may not be fishing in dangerous waters this week, think also the disciples in their experience of fishing in dangerous storms out on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus and Peter walk on water, we don't have that experience. But we can help our senior with finding shelter or valuable clothes, or food. Maybe there are kind words to affirm our love, we will be there for you. Be coming aged is full of fears. I often liken it to being in war facing trauma, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, losses due to diabetes; there is a lot out there and that should scare us to death. Let us take an adventure with our Sophie today. Keep walking

Promise - "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Read Leslie's blog at http://www.leslieleylandfields.com/blog/2017/1/11/the-unforgiveable-sin-especially-for-mini-van-drivers-like-me

Leslie has written a book Crossing Waters that I am reading on my Kindle. It's a good read.

Walking the walk without walking - Old guy adjustments

In walking with the fat Man a couple years ago I encountered a problem that mad walking hard for me. I slipped on the ice and did the splits like a cheerleader. Right before that every month or two I would take a fall. There's nothing new about that for me having cerebral palsy. But my knees ache all the time. After the splits, muscles tendons as well as a joints in the knees needed to heal. 

I had to develop a no-fall strategy. Since I never had one before, Having lived the life pushing the limits, this was difficult for me. How can I write a blog Walking with the Fatman? I don't know about you but for me hitting the wall takes some time to figure out. If you been following me for a while giving up is hard to do. So back to the drawing board.

In the overall two years of recovery I certainly lost my aerobic health. I was encouraged by my cardiologist to not give up, my heart was certainly up for it. That is the good news of all walking that I have had done.

While my body was improving I carried on with my fat man exercises of adopted push-ups, adopted dips, lunges, squats, heal raises and daily stretching.

I also discovered TRX suspension training, exercise tubes and dumbbells for strength training.

Barbara and I removed the carpeting in the lower level of our house and this reduced falling by quite a bit. When I am out and about especially if I'm going to do a carpeted place I will use my cane. When I am on uneven ground walking in a park I use my walking poles. I cannot a eliminate falling, but I sure got it done. My knees cannot take ground contact which is one of the reasons why I adopt so many exercises. My knees right now feel pretty good. (Knock on wood)

My indoor incumbent bike is a Godsend. There are three types of biking that I do. 1. I like to call walking the dog. Here and do 20 minutes rotating to stress in the first three levels just coasting along listening to a book. It sounds easier and it is. But it gets the blood moving, burns calories and it has all the benefits of a 20 minute walk at the end of the day. 2. I like to take my bike out of virtual bike trail, I can be listening two other things but as I bike I challenge myself with intensity in other levels and then bring it down to control my heart to stay in a healthy range. Like real biking sometimes it's easy and other times you're going up hill or you're trying to increase your speed. This is a good aerobic workout. 3. Here I use my recumbent bike to join in spin classes. The differences their bikes and my bikes are different, but I try to keep the same cadence when I can. Here I'm not listening to anything else about the class. This is very aerobic activity. One more adjustment I keep my heart rate within limits that my cardiologist is set. 

I think this is a very important principle that I have learned in exercising as we get older. We have to know our bodies and do things that work for us. We can still push the envelope but we don't have to do it like we did when we're younger. I encourage everybody to be on the same page as the competent Health providers on your team counsel you. We were made to move so don't give up.

Right now I am also developing exercise classes or activities to expand my interest and challenge my development. I have explored shadowboxing, senior workouts, desk workouts, dumbbell workouts, and just this week I am been doing seven minute workout on a app. I actually found jumping jacks to be quite a challenge. I was awful at them, but I think I will be able to improve. I will let you know how that works. Keep walking

Cool site to learn TRX, band and dumbbell exercises 

http://traininghomeandaway.com

The fatman on politics, ouch!

I am staying a bit today into the realm of politics. Follow my exploration of a need for political health of finding good ideas from those we disagree with, our need to be flexible and work to the common good. I think it is safe to say our partisan politics needs to be challenged.

We need to take time between the elections to examine our political health. We need a time of political creativity to move the American experience forward and with practicality work together. 

Right now we are living in a time where are political health is becoming so narrow that we cannot see common ground to work for the American people. In our partisan politics we have become so harden we are no longer flexible. Our ideas are becoming restrictive.

I would like to develop a metaphor of political health like into cardiovascular health. Our views have become like plaque on the artery walls. Over the years we have repetitively put on the same old patches of ideas on the walls of our political ideology that it looks more like graffiti and globs of cement that is built-up so that we have less space to live in the freedom of options in life. Instead the crude builds up to some kind of mindless conformity of less choice and opportunity.

This political hardness is moving increasingly to a political heart attack. We are losing sight of our political health and we are showing signs of political heart attacks and strokes.

It is time that we go to political doctor? We need to be put on a diet and exercise program. Our goal should be to serve the American people to improve the American experience. Our quest for political power is likely (A type personality who is unaware the drive is pushing toward a widow maker. This power quest leads to early death and upheaval in a political world with no insight at all. (Very deadly to the common person)

To develop more flexible arteries we need some omega-3 and good cholesterol to help patch our walls of life. We have been trying to patch this mess with partisan ideas and only serve the people of power. My diagnosis is that both parties have done this. 

Right now we maybe so hard we are not listening at all. Or we are in critical condition because we'll listen to argue. If we did this during the Great Depression or World War Two we would have fallen. Instead we showed tremendous flexibility as we shifted from social to capitalistic answers to meet our challenges.

What diet do we need right now? We need a good diet of ideas and possibilities. They are out there. They may take a little more time to cook and acquire a taste for, but we can change to good ideas. What is the exercise that we need to do now? We need to work for the common good. We need to put people over ideas. Political ambition (political type A personality) isn't the goal that we should be shooting for. 

One exercise every political person should do is to find five good ideas from there opposing party line. Politics cannot always be partisan, one of the criticisms has been the stagnation due to partisan politics. We have to develop stronger areas to work together. The possibility that there are hundreds of ideas that politicians can work together on should lead to a greater political health. The politicians can look back at the good things they did together and have a real legacy that everybody can see. Each politician should be able to come up with five ideas worth bringing up for the public debate for the American people to decide about. Could it be possible there are ideas of difference that in the debate some ideas move forward. 

The skill of the politician who is healthy is able to compromise for the common good people. The skill of the politician is to listen particularly to the opposite point of view, and find away to serve all the people. 

I am not naïve. We live in the most partisan times in the American experience. We have a political hardness of the heart where we have just about become two countries. Our political arteries are almost plugged. We are trying to ram into these rigid spaces agendas that give know room for one another. All parties are guilty of this, so we don't need to point fingers. 

But we really needed time of listening, exchanging good ideas, working together to continue a better fight. 

Combat Loneliness with fitness

I read an article in New York Times, Loneliness Can Be Deadly for Elders; Friends are the Antidote by Paula Span, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/health/loneliness-elderly.html

By the age is 75, 25% of men and nearly 46% of women Live alone. A person can be described as lonely even if they live with somebody. Not everybody who is alone is lonely. But everybody who is lonely affects how they age in their health. 

Many times when you have read an article you can check out where writer got the information. Many times these are studies written in medical journals following the scientific method. Paula was using a study in 2012, Loneliness in Older Persons a Predictor of functional Decline in Death. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1188033 

The study points out that functional decline and death will actually follow all of us. Loneliness is a factor that can bring it quicker. Loneliness is different than depression and there can be people who are lonely but not depressed. Obviously if you're lonely and depressed it can be a double whammy. I am not sure whammy is an exactly medical word.

One of the goals of healthy aging is to develop a strategy to maintain our independence and the ability to do the things we want. 

I have been developing a theory that seniors should develop a fitness program to improve fitness with strength, flexibility, and aerobics. We were younger the order maybe aerobics, strength, flexibility in regard to maximum health. Noticed that the order changes as we age. According to Dr. Cooper we need to work out more with resistance as we age. Dr. Cooper may put aerobics second in that movement helps give flexibility. As we age flexibility becomes more important.

So as we get older it is a good idea to include fitness in our daily routine. By doing so I believe as we age this will improve her functional fitness to take care yourselves. By improving our fitness we are not just maintaining our strength, aerobics, and flexibility but improving it. 

To improve our fitness we are realistic in knowing as we get older our improvement is not as quick as it was when we were younger. We improve at a slower rate, but we do improve.

In reading Dr. Cooper’s books we can actually add muscle even in our 90’s but it does take a little bit of effort.

As we age there are more setbacks and resets in our fitness. We should be prepared to start again after an injury or illness. In my blog how many times have reset my progress. 

We are all different and as we age we all lose friends through movement and death. Some of us are more capable of replacing friends. Some people loved being alone and others are not loved in their loneliness. Everybody can use a friend.

I wish I could start a movement where everybody used telephones to actually talk. If everybody could call a person once a week who is lonely. 

As long as were thinking retro, just think of reintroducing in cursive writing where once a month we wrote a letter. 

Are you alone? How are you dealing with it? Has it going on for a long time? Are you becoming less able to take care of yourself? Change may be very difficult? But you may need one.

Work with your doctor, but it is time to improve your fitness. One block walks, climbing a half flight of stairs, using a chair senior fit programs for strength. After warming up your body on a stationary bike (preferred a recumbent stationary bike) learn to stretch again. Better fitness will help you take care of yourself. 

If loneliness is hurting you than reach out to people who can help you. Relieving suffering is a good goal. I am a big fan to having a psychiatrist on board of your medical team. Who needs pain? Keep walking

No resolutions this year

I am glad to say that this year I made no New Year's resolutions. It's harder than you think not to do that. I am inclined to make a New Year's resolution just about everyday. I take up an activity and I are either finish with it or I move on something else. 

I have kind of excepted this and this is how I do things, so why embrace the idea always trying new ideas and mix-and-match. Take exercise for example, a few weeks week I am into boxing, then for a few weeks him into biking, then I a few weeks of indoor running, then a couple weeks of TRX… You get the idea all these changes but the one thing that encourages me as I'm still moving. 

The downside is this stop moving and giving up, no I think it's better to keep trying to find a way to stay in the game.

I am been playing around with lately doing 10 flights of stairs a day. Some days I do less, but on the whole I have added it 3 to 10 flights of stairs a day. There is been another constant in my life with my old man exercises of adopted push-ups, sit-ups, squats, dips and lounges.

For several weeks I have been eating less calories then I use. I base my calculations sedimentary lifestyle. How many calories do I need every day to maintain my weight if I get little movement at all. Cut at least 500 calories from that number and it should bring results. If I burn calories from an exercise or from moving around during my day that can be an added bonus. The problem has always been that I can eat like a bear foraging for the winter. 

Bears are most adaptable they can eat anything. That about describes me perfectly. The problem is my hibernation periods don’t exist. So I was just a matter of learning I eat differently. No, I can't call that a resolution because I've been looking at that for over six months. 

Maybe I can find success through many different ideas that will keep me moving forward as a I tend change strategy from one to another. 

My years at this blog just told me one thing moving from a fat man to a slimmer version is harder than then you think. The good news is I'm still alive and trying. 

My knees have healed and pain is gone. I have learned to do things without falling. Progress!Keep walking

Do you ever think about the afterlife, Earl? Learning from the funnies

I am glad these old birds are talking about the afterlife. Showing up to heaven in the buff would be difficult for many of us. My friend Jim Smith reminded me of the song title, “I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore.” There could be thousand reasons why our bodies don't look as good as they used to. But even when we were younger it was a pretty good idea for us to wear clothes.

Have you ever watch the Discovery series, "Naked and Afraid?" The participants are covered with a blur around their genitals and breasts, their backsides are generally seen. Everybody that is on the show starves, losing a lot of weight and most of the women on the show find some sort of covering. I bring up the show because it shows a couple  reasons why we have clothes. 

We live in less than ideal situations. Clothes are our first level of defense or shelter. The layer that the clothes provide is our first home. We are protected from the weather, we are protected from our environment. Think of all the protection that your pair shoes does. When I go to the beach now I wear a shirt that protects me from the sun. I can easily swim and the shirt. I will actually wear hat or a bandanna. Clothes keep our heat in when it's cold and protects us from snow, sleet, ice, or rain. On the discovery show the participants have not of these protections. They are greatly limited without shoes. It restricts their movement and ability to gather food. Without the clothes they have to deal with the heat and the cold. The only thing that saves these people is the time restraints that they have to be in the wilderness. If they had to do it for year they would not survive.

Clothes also protect us and make us less vulnerable to attacks not in our favor. Truth is people have problems with people and clothes give a barrier of defense of the body and person. People of the past would speak of wrongdoing, sin, living in a fallen world. Clothes have purpose and our daily news backs this up.

In heaven we won’t have sin and harm, but we will have clothes. We will be ourselves and we will be recognized, but we will not be in our aged or sick bodies. Our new body suggest we will be prepared to live in heaven. We will be complete and mature and what the whole lot better than we ever did in this life. God will have many changes in store for us. How to be ready for our eternal experience is the trust Christ as our Savior and depend on Him to bring you home. That home will be very different from the one we have enjoyed on our blue planet. Keep walking