Salty Zebra

  As I mentioned briefly last Wednesday , exercise is an important part of maintaining my blood sugar. According to my doctor and my nutritionist, I need to get some movement in after each time I eat. That's not super easy or practical because I'm a small-meal-every-two-hours person. That would mean I'm taking 7 or 8 walks a day! I wasn't even taking one walk most days before so that's quite a leap! But something is better than nothing, so what can  I do? Walking the Breast Cancer 3-Day in 2007. 60 miles in 3 days!  On our trip over the last week I did try to get out and do a 10-15 minute walk around the resort each time I ate, or I would get out of my wheelchair and push it around town like a walker. I always feel awkward about doing this no matter how long I've been using the chair. It's like I still feel like I have to prove my disability to everyone around me and if I get out of my chair they'll think I'm faking. Well, the truth is they might, bu...

  Until recently, I haven't been a frequenter of airport lounges. In fact I'd only been in one once on our way home from LA in 2008 when we got upgraded to first class because it was our 10th anniversary, and my husband had MVP Gold status with Alaska from all his work travel. I barely remember it, just a vague sense of feeling like an imposter, that I wasn't supposed to be allowed in there.  When my daughter began working for an airline in 2022, we started flying more. As parents of an employee we are granted the privilege of flying standby when there is room on a flight. Lets just say when you don't have to pay for airfare, it makes travel a lot more affordable! We did find, though, that we were spending a lot of time in airports. Number one, airports are expensive. Food, drinks, you name it. Next, airports tend to be uncomfortable. I think they don't want you to feel like you could settle in for the long haul. So I looked into the Alaska Lounges as this is the o...

“I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob, I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of a pasture; they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. The one who can break through barriers will lead them out; they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. Their king will advance before them; the Lord himself will lead them.”   Micah 2:12-13  “It’s not that bad,” you say to yourself. “So many people do things that are much worse.” “They deserve it after what they’ve done.” “I’m justified in my feelings because I’m on the side of right.”  We tell ourselves a lot of things to make us feel better. But the truth is, we all have a sin-sickness, we are all infected. It’s called Total Depravity and I talk about it more in another post .  The Bible is entirely clear that the cost of sin is death and we are all deserving of that punishment. There are no “i...

   Those of us with animals in our life often love them as family members. I can assure you that my two little black dogs are my babies. I miss them when I go on a trip, and I care about their needs and wants. I snuggle with them during a nap or in the evening while watching TV. They make me laugh. They make me cry. Occasionally they make me scream! What I'm getting at is that I care about them.  I'm so assured to read that God cares about animals too! Do all dogs go to heaven? That's a theological debate for another day, but what I learned today is that God counts animals in with people when it matters. I've been studying the book of Jonah for a week and they keep popping up. In chapter 3 , the king of Nineveh proclaimed that the animals would participate in their fast before God. What surprised me, I'll admit it made me giggle a little, was that he even decreed that the animals wear sackcloth! Here I am picturing the cows and sheep walking around with mourning clo...

    You may have read previously about the disappointing experiences we've had over the last year flying with my wheelchair. After our last flight, in February, my husband was motivated to write a letter to Alaska Listens . We waited to hear back, not sure what to expect.   Two weeks later, we received a phone call from the disability advocate from Alaska.  He was very friendly and kind on the phone, apologizing profusely for the experiences we'd had, and making sure to get all the details straight on our most recent incident. We spoke for more than 20 minutes and ended the conversation feeling heard and encouraged. He promised to email us with more details in the next week or so, and he followed through.   A few of the things that were most meaningful in his email were: "I am truly sorry to hear about the challenges you have faced with the storage of your wife's wheelchair during your travels with us. It is disheartening to learn that you have e...

  He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement. Jonah 4:2  The Ninevites were Jonah’s enemies. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which had harassed and terrorized Israel for a long time. In many ways, it could be likened to our modern enemy of al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and other groups have kept the world on its toes, always waiting for the next bomb to drop, both literally and figuratively.   On September 11 th , 2001, they perpetrated multiple acts of terrorism on the US using planes to crash into both of the Twin Towers in New York City as well as the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers on the airplane banded together to stop ...

  The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.   Jonah 3:5  We’ve all seen it, even if only on TV, the guy with the sandwich board calling people to repent. The end of the world is near. Does anyone take him seriously? I doubt it. He walks around the city day after day, night after night, warning people that their sin has a price, and the bill is coming due. Kind people might smile and nod at him. Mean people might mock him or even throw things at him. Most people ignore and avoid him. What would you do? What did you think when you saw this post?   Jonah entered the city of Nineveh immediately after being “disgorged” from having spent three days in the belly of a whale. The man had to look (and smell) a sight! How did he approach the city? He wasn’t happy to be there, of that we can be certain. Was he stomping? Had he picked up a large walking stick along the way? His presence c...