Adventures on the Mountain

There are so many things on the mountain that are new to us all.  Freeman, our small white fluffy dog, loves to bark at and chase all the novel critters.  He has escaped three times to romp through the woods.  The last time, he pulled the retractable leash from my hand and raced off in pursuit of a deer.  He was remarkably fast considering he was pulling that leash behind him!  It took me hours of searching every square inch of the woods surrounding us to find him.  He had wrapped the leash around trees and brush.  He was just sitting there waiting for us to find him. 

Two nights later, Freeman dove under a bush on our night walk - just to get sprayed by a skunk.  I was, of course, right behind him to get caught in the stink cloud.  If you have never experienced eau de skunk up close and personal, I advise you to avoid it at all costs.  The distant not-so-great smell you sometimes pass on the highway only begins to hint at the true nature of the skunk defense mechanism.  I was able to get the smell off of me by a scalding shower and scrub, but Freeman was a different story.  Four baths in baking soda, peroxide and dish soap, two baths in tomato juice and two in normal dog shampoo subdued the scent.  It has only just completely gone away - 1.5 weeks later!

Thanks to great friends, we are slowly getting our house settled.  It feels like home.  Of course, there are issues with houses that have sat unoccupied for nearly a year.  There are critters in our walls (not sure what to do about that - but must do something if we hope to sleep all night while we are here), the dishwasher died, and the yard still needs a lot of work.  All that notwithstanding, it is a great house that will be a wonderful place to live. 

My classmates are trickling onto the mountain, and it is great fun to help them move in and get to know them one at a time.  Thanks be to God, there are lots of children!  The girls have found friends quickly and are frequently gone riding bikes, playing in the creek, going to the playground, or generally hanging out on campus.  The sounds of gaggles of giggling girls can be heard in the house - and that makes me happy. 

There is no doubt that God brought us to Sewanee, and is weaving us into this community of faith and support.  I have no way to  know what the next three years will bring, but I do know that this community will be our family for the next three years and beyond. 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The five Jollys have moved into our house in Sewanee, TN and are working to settle in. This has been quite an adventure - even more so than I thought.

First the Good: Two dear friends, Allison and Laird, and my mother brought the girls to Sewanee on Friday after we came with the moving truck on Wednesday. They stayed all weekend and worked hard to help us unpack and feel at home. Not only was their gift of their time and hard work such a blessing to us, but just having this house full of family was the greatest gift of all. After they left, we started to slowly explore this community. We have met several wonderful people, explored parks and trails, and listened to outdoor concerts. I have my student ID, and we are registered at the Physical Activities center. The girls have ventured out on their bikes, and we are working to get comfortable with giving them more range than they had at home. This truly is a beautiful place, and a warm, inviting community. It is hard not to love being here when you are walking around.

Then the Bad: It is amazing to me that students continue to come to Sewanee - there is little to no cell service here. We knew this to be the case coming in, but underestimated how frustrating it would be to have to walk half a mile up the street to make a phone call. After days of struggling with technology issues (including TWO trips to Murfreesboro an hour away and multiple walks up the street for troubleshooting phone calls), we are now connected to the outside world. We are, perhaps, more addicted to technology than we would like to admit, but having no ability to talk with friends and family would be frustrating for nearly anyone. My sense of isolation from all those whom we love dearly set in firmly when all the family left, and not being able to adequately talk to anyone only served to magnify that feeling. Now that I know we can make and receive phone calls, send and receive email and texts, and of course blog and Facebook, it is easier to enjoy the beauty and adventure of our life here.

Then there is the Ugly: The winner of the "you can't judge a book by its cover" contest: Our house. As fabulous as it is on the inside - and I truly love it and already feel like it is our home even with the boxes everywhere - the outside seems to be infamous. Several people have asked us, "and WHY did you choose to live in that house?" :) As we enter into this stage of our lives, it helps to be reminded daily that God created us all in His image and are beloved - regardless of how others see us. Hopefully when I act out of the stress of this change, those around me will appreciate what is on the inside! Meanwhile, we keep unpacking slowly, and look forward to whatever tomorrow brings.

Pain and Promise

Deciding to pack up our entire family, resign my job and move to Tennessee to attend Seminary was something that took a long time of prayer and discernment for our family. It was a very difficult decision for us, but one in which we ultimately found peace by following God's will. The last few weeks in Greenville have brought back the pain we went through in making the decision. What was painful while the whole endeavor was merely theory is very real in practice.

David and I both grew up in this area, and our families are still here. We have an incredibly strong prayer and support community in Christ Church and our 20:20 group, as well as amazing friends in the Greenville community. We love our neighborhood and the city of Greenville. Saying goodbye one by one to our dear friends and family has brought each member of the Jolly family to tears many times.

While we struggle with the pain of leaving, our house is a very real reminder that we are being ripped out of our comfort zones. Boxes everywhere, packing peanuts strewn around the floors, and items we can't find have even the animals not sure what to do.

Even with all of this pain and anxiety, we live in the promise that our Lord has called us to Sewanee to Seminary. He has called us, will provide everything we need while we are there, and will give us a family in faith there as well. We know that as long as we continue to seek and follow God's will for our family, we will live in His peace. We are praying for our friends and family here in Greenville, as we know our departure brings them pain. We are also praying for our new friends in Sewanee, that God will surround them with His peace as they live into His calling in their lives. We are so very grateful for all the support and prayers from so many people we know and do not know. We feel them, covet them, and rest in them when we feel overwhelmed. May we all take the time to praise our Lord for His work in our lives everyday!

A Journey in Swimming

Often it's the journey, not the destination where we should put our focus. Just last night, my Oswald Chambers devotional talked about how we have no idea what God's goal may be. He suggested that our lives should be devoted to the journey - focused on the Lord. I'm a fairly driven, type A, goal-oriented person and I struggle with enjoying the journey. I love to cross things off my lists, and delight in the joy of achieving a goal. That is one reason I began training for the triathlon. This seemed to be a good way to channel my competitive side and have some tangible goal achievement.
Today I started my workout specifically to achieve a goal, since I had not had a goal-achieving day at work. I was swimming today, which is the area I have struggled with the most since the beginning of the training. 11 weeks ago I could barely swim 25 meters without collapsing, and recently I swam 200 meters straight for the first time. This seemed like good progress to me, although I am supposed to swim 400 in the race. Today, I wanted to swim only sets of 100s and 200s with no 50s in the mix. I hoped to swim a total of 800, which is a lot for me. I swam a few 100s, and one 200, and was narrowing in on the end of my workout. My friend Allison came by the pool on her way out of the Y to give me words of encouragement. We have been talking about the mental aspect of sports, so she came to tell me, "you can swim further!" After she left, I decided I would swim another 200 then leave. As I was finishing the last lap, I realized I could go further, so I thought I would try to swim 300. Again, towards the end, I realized I could go further still. I lost offical count after 700, but I'm nearly positive that I swam at least 1000 straight. All total today I swam a MILE! One of my long term swimming goals is to swim a mile straight. After today, that is becoming a shorter term goal!
The thing is, I really enjoyed the swimming when I got into the rhythm. Every breath allowed me to see the sky and the clouds moving by. I could marvel in God's creation, while being joyful that I was healthy and fit enough to swim like this. It was strangely almost relaxing. My form wasn't great by any stretch, and I wasn't fast at all. But I blew my goal for the day out of the water (pardon the pun). I was too short sighted and focused on a small intermediate goal instead of the journey.
I still do believe that goals are important, and planning is critical for achievement. But as I continue training, I'm going to make sure to try to enjoy the journey a little more. In my life, I've been trying to do the same. I am taking more quiet time for myself to be alone with God, spending more focused one-on-one time with my husband, and enjoying real play with my children. Our life here is a blessing and a challenge. May God grant me the grace to live each day as Oswald Chambers says, "seeking to do the 'will of the Father'...and whatever I encounter on the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure" may I not be, "deterred from that purpose."

Exercises in Humility

If I'm honest with myself, I would admit that I don't like to do things that I'm not good at doing. I work hard, but usually I work hard at things I know will turn out well. Growing up, I was not good at any sports I tried. I was that girl who was picked last for every team in PE and benched at church softball. Convinced that I was not athletic (an opinion frequently reinforced by others), I found other talents and left all sports to those more talented than I.

In the past 10 years, I have made various attempts to find exercise that appealed to me. I tried running, and enjoyed the races, but was not fast, and never seemed to get better. I tried various aerobic classes, weight lifting, and even Zumba. Nothing stuck, and I became further convinced that I was not athletic. Needless to say, taking on triathlon training was not a logical course of action for me since I am not good at swimming, biking or running.

This week has been particularly humbling. I went out to Carolina Triathlon on Woodruff Road to participate in their Saturday morning bike ride. I called ahead to verify the length of the ride (30ish miles), and pace of the "C" group (14-16 mph). I have ridden up to 25 miles before, and tend to ride 16-20 mph on flat ground, so felt comfortable with this. Right out of the parking lot, I knew this was not going to be as I had envisioned. The pace on the flatland was 25-27 mph, which had me working a lot harder than I had planned from the very beginning. Five miles into the 30 mile ride, the yogurt I ate for breakfast was long gone, my chain came off my bike (I got it back on, but got behind the group), and a series of hills wore me out. There I was, dead last in the group and off my bicycle mid-hill trying to catch my breath. Randy, the ride leader, pushed me along, and I survived the ride. Yes, I rode further than I had ever ridden before, and I was not dead last for the rest of the ride. And yes, I felt publicly humiliated. Then on Monday, my tri training class did a group run at the Greenville High track. I was the slowest in the group - by a good bit. We did speed work, and when we ran 1200s, I was almost a full lap behind the lead runner - again dead last.

To me, the most interesting part of this journey is that I have been praying for humility, as pride tends to be a dominant sin in my life. You've heard the phrase, "be careful what you pray for?" In this training, pride has been the furthest thing from my heart. I'm NOT the best, in fact, I'm the worst in the group. My accomplishments are not defining me, which is a new experience. I spend every training swim, bike or run praying and/or singing praises to God. I have to rely on His grace and strength to get me through. At the end, I'm thrilled with my baby step accomplishments. Yes, I was mortified on Saturday when I was the last person who held up a whole group, but I got better, and I finished the ride. Yes, I was embarrassed to be the last person running on the track, but I ran a LOT faster than I thought I could. With God's strength, I am persevering my goal to complete this triathlon. With God's grace, I am learning strength in humility.