21.28.30.90?

A Google search will give you differing answers as to how long it takes to form a habit. I suppose a self-search might give you the right answer.

I've decided to go with 28, because that's what my fourth-grade teacher always said. So I figured I'd test it out. I've never worked on my upper-body strength, and it's rather obvious, but I can't say I ever really cared. I've always been a runner, even though that's hard to say. In college I'd run for 20-30 minutes about 4x a week. To me, a runner is someone who runs for an hour at a time. When I lived in Honduras, I got up to running an hour for a while. Then I moved back to the states, got two jobs and returned to the 20-30 minute thing ... when I can.

So the newest thang: doing pushups. My fiance's arm muscles are defined and HUGE. (This is my blog and I write my opinion) He can do quite a few pushups ... the kind where your nose touches the ground and your back is flat ... after not doing them for a long time. This seems to be a law of nature when it comes to men vs. women, or maybe the men in my life vs. me. Anyhow, I wanted to start working on that strength, so I did.

If I do my pushups tonight, I'll be at day 26. On Thursday, the habit will officially kick in. I think, though, it already has.

I get sleepy pretty quickly, and there have been a few times where I'll lay in bed and be on the verge of zonking out. "OH NO" my head pops up out from under the covers, like a sixth-grader remembering its Science Project day (thanks Brian R.) and I realize that two minutes later and I would have kicked myself in the morning, having to start the counting all over again.

Somehow the brain forms a new pathway, and it alerts me when I'm slacking. I'm not very good at doing pushups, in fact, as for the nosedive kind, I can only do about ten at a time. But for the other, simpler kind (the man-version but nose not touching the floor), I'm now able to do about 50 at a time — a feat near impossible 26 days ago.

It really is amazing and revolutionary when it comes to changing patterns: ridding old or gaining new. I'm a visual person, most people are. So having a calendar with the numbers on them, reminds me of my accomplishments and that my body is subject to my mind.

Life is, whether we want it to be or not, a pattern of habits. It's good to be aware of the habits I want to form ... and well, start pushing.

My food is ... my satisfaction

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. - Matthew 5:6

Since my freshman year of college in 2001, I've wanted a tattoo. I know: taboo.
Well, boo — I got one. I imagine most old friends can't imagine me with one, even though my close college pals have heard me say this for a long time ... and one caucasian asian has tried to talk me out of it. But I think she, along with my mom, always knew one day it would happen.

So here's the tattoo. It's on the flop side of my left wrist, right underneath where my Timex Ironman goes, when I'm wearing him.

The image is a small stick man no bigger than a quarter with a hole for a stomach. It comes from an Algonquin Indian symbol for the Hunger Moon, which was the moon representing the second month of the year, the same month I was born. The snow moon was in January, and after the snow fall, the crops died and the people hungered. This tattoo means a lot to me ... and I think that's how it should be with tattoos.

Jesus tells us on his sermon on the mount, that we can find satisfaction if we hunger after the right things. At one point in the gospels, when someone asks Jesus if he's hungry, he tells them:

MY FOOD IS TO DO THE WILL OF HE WHO SENT ME

And Job, back before Jesus' time, told God "I've hungered after your words more than my necessary food."

We will always be hungry on this earth. This is a reminder to me that eating M&Ms the rest of my life — going after the fleeting desires — won't satisfy the deep longings. But seeking the eternal, going after what God desires ... these will be the true meat that quench the profound growls of the human soul.

The Bible says our spirits groan for the kingdom come. But we don't always listen to our spirits. His word says to honor God with our bodies. And some argue a tattoo cannot honor God. I will let them argue that. We all have our own opinions about such.

But I must say, every time I look at my wrist, I am reminded of the fleeting and of the eternal ... and I hear the ache and feel the longing for a heavenly home.

Build up for yourself treasures in heaven where thieves cannot steal and moth and rust cannot destroy. -Matthew 6:20