Category Archives: Real Life Musings

Real life musings about life as a whole, including parts of life that impact singles and married couples, experience are here. These writings are also for people who are experiencing relationship changes. You’ll find articles that focus on ways to connect with family better. Other topics you’ll discover encourage children to develop a love for reading books and navigating a career are some of the blog articles written and shared here. Take your time reading through the articles. They are designed to equip you with insights, motivations, tips and inspiration that strengthen your inner being.

Famous Athletes Setting Good Examples

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By Denise Turney

Last night I watched ESPN’s “30 for 30” sports documentary about professional athletes who go broke, many because they mismanaged their money. To say it was painful to watch the show is an understatement. It was absolutely hard to watch people who once had millions, some hundreds of millions of dollars, be deep in debt within 10 or fewer years after they retired from their sport. Watching the television documentary reminded me of the importance of being a good steward (manager) of what has been given to me. Watching the ESPN sports television documentary also reminded me of how quickly the high times can end.

Famous Athletes Learning from Their Mistakes

The ESPN sports television documentary made me think about examples of excess some famous athletes set. Professional athletes who appeared on the sports documentary where forthcoming. They didn’t appear to pull any punches. I appreciate that. It’s not easy to expose clay-feet-thinking in such a public way, especially considering the fact that we all have made mistakes. It was refreshing to see professional athletes who learned from their mistakes or who always managed their finances sensibly. Considering the fact that several of the professional athletes who went broke or filed bankruptcy gave others legal access to their finances and directed others to manage their money, I couldn’t help wondering if it should be a requirement for professional athletes to take accredited money management courses before signing sports contracts. This way, they might have the confidence to manage their own finances.

After the sports documentary, I thought about famous athletes who regularly set good examples, men and women who manage their money and their personal lives well, in ways that can yield years of reward. I thought about track runner, Jesse Owens, and how he handled himself both in and outside his sport. Memories of a former colleague sharing the story of her cousin, a man who played in major league baseball (MLB), who decided to step away from the sport after his wife and he added to their family. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and children. That’s a choice few famous athletes would likely make, but one this former professional baseball player never did regret.

Professional Athletes Who Are Real Champions

Then there’s Kai Greene, a professional bodybuilder, and a man who doesn’t promote excess, but who instead promotes inner vision, focus and using the strength of our minds. It was inspiring to see him commit to achieving his goal, winning Mr. Olympia, just two days after he took second place in the 2012 event. It’s refreshing to see professional athletes be secure in themselves and not need to make an appearance everywhere they go. It’s refreshing to see professional athletes truly (and I mean truly) put their children in front of the sport they compete in (not just in word or during interviews but in every day behind the scenes life from the time their children are born).

These professional athletes show that making it to the big leagues doesn’t mean you’ve become the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, someone with illusions of power. They show kids that, anyone with a dream, focus, commitment, drive, passion and talent can do what they have done. They encourage rather than discourage others to outperform them after they retire, not fearing that another athlete will eclipse their records. They root for the entire human race, not just themselves. They’re winners, real champions.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

What Makes Women and Men Fall in Love?

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By Denise Turney

Years ago I thought falling in love was something orchestrated only by heaven. Now, I wonder if that’s really the case. True. Little — if anything, feels as invigorating, as intoxicating and as all consuming as falling in love. Yet, as magical as falling in love feels, studies have revealed that the process of falling in love can be orchestrated, with intent, by everyday folk.

Power Feelings of Falling in Love

Your Amazing Brain says we fall in love in three stages. In the first stage, we feel lust (others might call it infatuation) for someone. Then, we move on to attraction and finally the third stage of attraction. The entire time we are moving through each of these stages, our brains are fast at work, causing the process to seem almost mechanical.

During the first stage estrogen (women) and testosterone (men) increases. It’s no wonder we feel so nervous and giddy during this stage. Hormones are rushing through our systems, including our brains, at heightened levels. It’s during the attraction stage that we can’t seem to stop thinking about a person. Adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin (the godmother of good feelings) take center stage during the attraction stage. We also tend to view the person we’re falling in love with as being perfect or damn near perfect. Some refer to this as wearing rose-colored glasses (of course, sooner or later, those glasses come off).

After we’ve been in a relationship with someone for several weeks or months, we may start to enter the attachment stage. This is when we start producing an increase of oxytocin and vasopressin. However, should our brains start producing or secreting lower levels of these hormones, we might start feeling less in-love with a person.

Growing Into Deeper Love With Someone

Studies have shown that the process of falling in love can be orchestrated if couples spend enough time together to allow their brains to move through the stages. There’s also still more research being done to discover what happens to our brains and our bodies during the early, middle and late stages of being in love. Perhaps we’ll never fully know what happens to us during the time in our lives when we can feel so out of control as we start feeling incredibly strong emotions when we meet and/or think about someone. What we do know is that the feelings generally don’t last.

If we run away from relationship challenges and don’t have conviction about a loving relationship, we may never reach deep commitment, we may never enter the deepest and sweetest places of a relationship. It’s what Raymond and Brenda learn in Love Pour Over Me as they try to understand why they feel so drawn to each other, almost as if heaven is pushing them together, so soon after they meet at college.

Falling and staying in love would be easy if all we had to do was focus on the one we felt a strong emotional and psychological connection to. But, that’s not the way it goes. As happens with Brenda and Raymond in the book Love Pour Over Me, other events of our lives seem to get in the way. There are jobs to go to, children to care for, houses to keep up, friends to hang out with . . . the list goes on and on and on . . .

Before you know it, we’re not feeling so in love anymore. Maybe it’s because our minds and our brains get cluttered with too many other things to focus on. Who knows? What remains sure is that, whether studied or not, little beats or compares to the feelings of falling in love. It’s an exhilarating time, and when it’s right, when a relationship can and does stand the test of time (and any other test thrown its way), being in love is right – perfect.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please return often and read more blog posts. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Your Amazing Brain: The Science of Love – http://www.youramazingbrain.org/lovesex/sciencelove.htm

Psychology Today: The Early Stages of Falling in Love – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-hardy/201203/the-early-stages-falling-in-love

Sweet Memories for College Students of Time Spent at College

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By Denise Turney

Author – Love Pour Over Me

Buy at Amazon.com

Days spent attending student club social events, athletic competitions and hanging out with friends visiting nearby eateries, parks and historic landmarks . . . it’s a winning blend creating sweet memories of time spent a college. More often than not on college campuses noise fills dorm hallways. During the mornings, college students not living in apartments on or off college campus can be heard talking as they trek from their small rooms to public bathrooms to shower and brush their teeth and prepare for coming events of the day. Soon chatter rises amongst students, building to a crescendo as students leave their dorm buildings and head across grassy college campus lawns to class.

Sweet College Memories Endure for College Graduates

Everyone seems to be in a hurry. Boredom is nowhere to be found. The future stretches out long and full of promise. It’s as if college is a time of rebirth of sorts, a time when recent high school graduates and upperclassmen are assured they are going to achieve their dreams, fulfill their most longed for wishes.

Just thinking about the excitement and social exchanges students like Love Pour Over Me’s Raymond Clarke and his friends Anthony, Patrick and Doug, experience while they’re at college makes me wonder if some high school graduates don’t attend college just so they can make and hang out with new friends, adding one sweet memory after another to their lives.

College life for Raymond and his friends takes place at a famous Pennsylvania university. Football is widely celebrated at the school, a reason that Raymond’s good friend, Anthony, is a local celebrity. Raymond’s fame comes through his track and field exploits. Yet, it’s the laughter, social and personal experiences the men share that creates sweet memories of time spent at college for them.

As with other college students, some of Raymond and his friends’ college experiences, seemingly innocent, come at a price. But, nothing – absolutely nothing – can break the bond of friendship the men share, the friendship the men formed after they first happened upon each other at college.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say –
Thank You!

Books That Are Breaking Barriers

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By Denise Turney

Read Love Pour Over Me and you’ll see the impact mental barriers have on us. In fact, I was reminded of this fact today after I returned from a daily walk.

While watching CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien earlier today I was happy to watch a story about a school that teaches the Quran to Muslim girls, allowing them to read passages in the book for themselves. Through the readings the girls came to see that they were not created to be abused and mistreated.

Talk about a brilliant and joyous sight . . . to see another barrier broken! As I watched the story I thought about the movie The Help and how African American women were afraid to speak out against abuses happening to them in the 1950s and 1960s. As one woman after another shared her story, it became easier to distinguish facts from lies, kindness from manipulation and, perhaps most of all, fear from courage. After all, the fearful attack; it’s always a sure sign of fear . . . attack.

We Are Not Our Beliefs

In order to continue to distinguish lies from truth, we have to continue to examine our beliefs, even those practiced or passed down by our ancestors (after all, if our ancestors were as right as we might like to think they were our ancestors would have left the world in a more loving state). We also have to come to see that we are not our beliefs as we didn’t create ourselves; but we do create our beliefs. As we see we aren’t our beliefs we may come to realize that we are not harmed, weakened, etc. in any way, not the slightest or smallest way, by letting erroneous thoughts or wrong beliefs go.

Plainly stated, letting go of wrong beliefs, erroneous thoughts or illusions will not kill us. We precede our beliefs; what we truly are came first.

love pour over me book by denise turney

In Love Pour Over Me, Raymond Clarke’s erroneous thoughts start early, as they often do. Raymond’s father, a man with untreated alcoholism, tells Raymond one lie after another about himself. Evidence he uses to prove he’s right in his errorneous thinking might be something as simple as Raymond spilling a glass of milk on the floor or trekking mud in the house on the bottom of his shoe.

Seventeen years of hearing then believing lies about himself causes Raymond to start protecting himself, especially his heart. It also propels Raymond to flee home. It’s his next step that changes his life, and the lives of five people he meets at college, forever, that, over a long stretch of time, helps Raymond to start examining lies he’s been told, aiding him as he begins breaking inner barriers to love.

As I watched the CNN story, thought about the movie The Help and pondered Raymond’s fate in Love Pour Over Me, I couldn’t help but wonder if our greatest fear is real love (not the illusion of love we are so keen to celebrate and chase after). Think about it. Is real love what we’re trying to attack, trying to steer clear of?

Thank you for reading my blog. Please return often and read more blog posts. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! 

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Accessing Strong Faith to Realize Your Dreams

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By Denise Turney

The genesis of faith is in the realm where physical eyes do not see. Faith might reveal itself in an emotion or thought. For example, if you want to land a six-figure job and buy a new house, faith might cause you to feel happy, hopeful and joyous when you drive through neighborhoods filled with houses that resemble the type of house you want to live in.

If you let the feelings and thoughts strengthen you will allow faith to connect your inner and outer vision causing you to see with your physical eyes what you first saw with your inner vision. Eventually you will have what you asked for (whether you used words or simply desire, absent words, to ask).

Temptations to Stop Using Faith to Realize Your Dreams

It all sounds simple enough and it is simple. However, we live in a physical world (even the physically blind use physical senses like touch to navigate the earth’s terrain). It’s tempting to keep checking to see if our faith is moving our inner vision for what we want into the physical realm. When we hear of others who have manifested their desires ahead of us we can start to feel like we’ll never get what we’ve been asking for. If we compare ourselves to others too much, we might start telling ourselves we’re “unlucky,” “not from the right family or background,” “created to sacrifice our desires so others can achieve” (this one is absolutely absurd!) or a failure.

I’m sure you can guess what likely occurs next. Yep. We quit trying to achieve our dreams, and that, my friend is not a fun life, because our authentic self will not stop asking for what it wants, and we may live a life of conflict, lacking peace, if we don’t get back to exercising strong faith to realize our dreams. It’s this refusal to quit that keeps moving Love Pour Over Me’s Raymond Clarke forward, propelling him to pursue his dreams to become one of the world’s top middle distance runners. Refusal to quit is also the reason Raymond never stops believing in and searching for love. Like many of us, the wait for true love seems too long for Raymond. Yet, the thought of living without love is too painful.

Realizing Your Dreams

The bottom line is – we were created to live vibrant, joyous, love-filled experiences . . . nothing short of it . . . ever. As we start doubting and not getting our most sincere, love-based requests while witnessing others doing the same, we may even tell ourselves that it’s the human condition to struggle, to be in conflict and misery. But this is a lie. Fortunately, there are enough of us using faith to realize our dreams to blow this lie out of the water.

For many students at a famous Pennsylvania university, Raymond’s successes serve as encouragement. Other students on the spacious university campus simply admire Raymond’s athletic achievements from afar, cheering him on with each win. While appreciating the support, Raymond can’t help but long for his father’s approval, something he didn’t get even when he was a little boy. This is where Raymond’s seeds of doubt about love and a truly good life derive. He starts to wonder if he can have what he really wants – a lifetime of love.

However, just because we don’t know how to start a car doesn’t mean a car won’t start. Just because we haven’t succeeded at riding ocean waves doesn’t mean ocean waves can’t be ridden (surfers do it all the time). Just because no one had broken the four minute mile didn’t mean humans couldn’t break the four minute mile (Roger Bannister broke the supposedly impossible to break four minute mile in 1954. Since that time the supposedly impossible fete has been accomplished by track runners many times with the fastest mile to date being run in 3:43. Perhaps it was the mental barrier that needed to be broken before the actual fete could be accomplished).

Possibly searching for a list of impossible fetes that humans achieved will help you to realize whatever you’re telling yourself is impossible might be very possible if you exercise faith to realize your dreams. Perhaps if you read stories of other people who felt a dream birthing inside themselves then worked to achieve or manifest the dream in the physical realm your faith will be strengthened.

It also might help to think about your love-based desires and paying attention to how good you feel when you see yourself achieving them. It’s this joy you want to feel all the time. Realizing your love-based dreams can help you to do this. It worked for Raymond in Love Pour Over Me. It’s worked for countless people around the globe. It can work for you.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Even if you choose not to purchase your copy of Love Pour Over Me today, I encourage you to “consider Love.”

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

How Long Should You Wait For Love

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By Denise Turney

1 Corinthians 13:7 says love “endureth all things.” In other words, love never gives up. It never quits as is evidenced in 1 Corinthians 13:13 where it states, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Love is Why We’re Here

Love is what we were created to do. However, this world’s thought system seems to taint love, taking away its shine, even causing it to appear weak, as something to avoid. We think we’re in love with someone only to discover subconscious (our hidden motives, hidden thoughts and hidden beliefs) that are rooted in the past are what caused us to feel a strong attraction to a person we claim to be in love with.

Years may pass before we realize that our relationship with a person, our attraction to someone, has very little, if anything to do with the actual person. Instead, if we still our mind until awareness arises, pushing away subconscious clouds, we may be surprised to find that we were attracted to a figure, experience or situation from the past. We may find that the people who remind us the most of emotionally charged experiences from the past grab our attention, demanding it.

“I’m in love! I’m in love!” we declare to family and friends. But are we? Or is our subconscious mind attempting to right a past wrong and seeking to use certain people (who again evoke strong memories from the past in us) to do so?

Love’s Eternal Attraction

If you don’t think this is possible, consider taking a few moments to create an honest portrait of the people you have felt most strongly attracted to. Don’t be surprised if you find two or more similar qualities in each of these people. You might even discover that the people you feel the strongest attraction to have personality traits (e.g. extraversion, courage, risk taking, social skills, leadership) you wish you had. In this case, you might pull toward people you believe will fill up perceived gaps in you.

The trouble is that we can’t fill up gaps in each other. Sure, we can love, support and encourage each other. We can laugh together. We can feel joy and celebrate successes together, but we can’t fill up gaps in each other. The reason we can’t fill up gaps in each other is simple; in truth, in reality (not in illusion) there are no gaps, there is no incompletion in any of us. Those of us who are like Raymond, the main character in Love Pour Over Me find this nearly impossible to believe.

In Raymond’s case, an abusive childhood has set the stage, created years of programming that may take a lifetime to decode. Fortunately, for Raymond there is Brenda. Without fully knowing why she can’t just walk away, Brenda works to understand Raymond, a hurting yet courageous and gentle man.

But, how long should you (or Brenda) wait for love? How long should you wait for someone to stop being afraid of love so that they can receive the love you are trying to give them? How long should someone what for you to lower your fear of love so that you can receive their love in return? Is it possible that some people (like you, like me . . . like Raymond) may not progress beyond old perceived hurts to accept love in all its beauty, all its glory?

I’m referring to true and real love, not an illusion of love that’s rooted in the past. Do you believe that love truly endures all things (e.g. wars, heartache, disappointment)? Do you truly believe that love is the greatest of all? If you do believe this, how is love changing your relationships? How is love causing you to see and communicate differently with the people in your life?

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Middle Distance Olympic Track and Field Runners

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By Denise Turney

Admittedly, it’s sprints like the 100 meter and 200 meter races that track and field spectators get the most excited to watch. Sprinters, including Olympic gladiators, put in grueling workouts under the watchful eye of an experienced coach. Although the races they run are short, over in a matter of seconds, they are explosive, demanding, exhilarating. Clearly, they deserve the hoopla and the celebrating they receive.

Middle Distance Olympic Track and Field Heroes

From Jesse Owens who sprinted at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin to Carl Lewis (both born in Alabama) who dominated sprints and the long jump during the 1980s to Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, shorter distances have long been amongst the most anticipated and talked about events in track and field. Yet, it’s middle distances that try women and men in ways sprints do not.

Middle distance races require strength, stamina, perfect pacing and a mental agility few practice. Start a quarter mile or half mile run too fast and you’re out of the winnings. Fail to run the backstretch with precision, your graceful form causing spectators to wonder if they’re watching a gazelle make its way across the ground, and there’s a strong chance that the other runners will catch you coming around the final turn.

In that regard middle distance races are akin to boxing matches. A second produces the same results that an hour does off the track. One mistake, however slight, can spell the end of a race a runner has prepared and trained for over the course of a year or longer. Too many mistakes and a middle distance runner may find herself labeled a “has been” and it all can happen in a matter of seconds.

Raymond Clarke Running for the Gold

No one knows this better than Raymond Clarke (the main character in my new novel Love Pour Over Me). Coach Carter, a seasoned track and field coach who works at a famous Pennsylvania university, is well aware of the impact time has on middle distance races. He also knows how to spot an Olympic champion and world class runner when he sees one, and it’s this he recognizes at once in Raymond.

It’s during the summer when Coach Carter tells Raymond about the upcoming track meet in Oregon. If Raymond wins he’ll make the Olympic team, a rare fete for a full-time college student. The Oregon invitational is the type of event Raymond has been striving to excel at for much of his young physical experience.

He knows crossing the finish line first will put him on par with great Olympic middle distance runners like Britain’s Sebastian Cole, Steve Ovett and New Zealand’s Peter Snell. It’s a mammoth challenge; Raymond is ready. Thanks to Coach Carter he’s learned how to seize the moment. He’s ready for the Olympics.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Sources:

http://www.london2012.com (London 2012 Olympics)

Alcoholism in America: Growing up the Child of an Alcoholic Parent

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By Denise Turney

Unfortunately, alcoholism in America is not a fantasy. It’s left many a child in the clutches of fear and uncertainty.

To be sure, no child should grow up afraid, especially of his parents. Yet, this is the scene that alcoholism has painted for far too many children in the United States. It’s enough that parents with untreated alcoholism cause themselves and their children to feel embarrassment to the point where hiding from the larger society appears to be the only way out of the darkness.

Losing the Right to be a Child

If neighbors, school teachers and other family members don’t intervene, situations children and their alcoholic parents find themselves buried within generally worsen. It’s as though sudden or instant miracles of healing do not come around these families.

When teachers, school administrators, relatives, clergy members and friends approach a child’s alcoholic parents, they should do so in such a way that the child will not be placed in danger as some alcoholic parents may become outraged at being approached, at having their illness revealed. After all, when many of us become ill we often scramble to pretend as if nothing is wrong in effort to hide the illness. But hiding fixes absolutely nothing. Revealing challenges, talking openly about them and facing facts is where progress begins.

It is this goal to hide the festering problems of alcoholism that can keep the illness brewing, ready to erupt and explode . . . perhaps on innocent children. So it is with Raymond Clarke and his father, Malcolm, in Love Pour Over Me.  You see, this father and son pair love each other deeply, but Malcolm’s sickness has run its course, done its damage.

It’s gotten to the point where Raymond cringes when he sees loving parents doting over their infant and toddler aged children. In these loving interactions he sees what he longed for as a kid but did not receive. It makes him hard, careful, protective of his heart . . . his emotions. What Raymond experiences may be familiar to children of alcoholics and to children of parents battling beneath the throes of  mental illness.

Finding Ways to Fit In

Yet, Raymond finds a way to keep moving forward (and it is, in part, for this very reason that I wrote Love Pour Over Me). If asked, Raymond wouldn’t be able to tell you just how he pulls this off. He’s just glad that he does. As with some children of alcoholic parents Raymond’s talents push through. Perhaps it’s in the expression, the unleashing of his talents, that some of his help rest.

His talents earn him a scholarship to a prestigious university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While at university, Raymond meets a motley sort of friends, chief of them being Anthony, an elite running back. Only one of Raymond’s friends is the child of an alcoholic. This friend hails from Mexico. Despite their shared past, Raymond and he couldn’t be more different which may point to the fact that shared experiences do not shape people in the same ways.

Trustfully, children of alcoholic parents (as well as children of parents suffering from other forms of mental illness) will tap into the courage to fully express their inborn talents as Raymond does. This way they can continue to move forward, giving themselves new chances to be loved, more opportunities to both give and receive authentic love. They deserve it.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Preparing for Track and Field at the 2012 Olympics

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By Denise Turney

Let me start off by saying, “I love track and field.” I’ve loved the sport since I was 10 years old. This is the time of year when track and field, especially at the professional level, is in full swing. Of course, this year we also have the 2012 Olympics which kick off July 26, the day when the Olympic torch is scheduled to be lit at London’s Olympic Stadium.

Track and Field 2012 Olympic Trials

The air is filled with anticipation, nerves, great expectation and excitement. National Olympic trials are already causing a stir. For starters, sprinter Yohan Blake beat fellow Jamaican, Usain Bolt, in the 100 meters at Jamaica’s track and field trials. Of course, both sprinters raced their way into the Olympic Games. It’s just that few people expected anyone to beat Bolt, an international favorite in the 100 meters. As reported in The Guardian’s June 29, 2012 “London 2012 Olympics: Usain Bolt Beaten by Yohan Blake at Olympic Trials” article, Blake was clocked at 9.75 in the 100 meter finals during the trials. Impressive.

The women’s 200 meter trial sprint was a scorcher, Allyson Felix barely edging out Jeneba Tarmoh by running a blazing 22.297 seconds. Trials for longer distances were held later in the week. One of the more challenging distance events is the steeple chase, a race that demands stamina, mental strength and flexibility and an undefeatable will. During the Oregon trials, Emma Coburn was clocked in the steeplechase at 9:32.78, a time that was almost three seconds ahead of second place finisher, Bridget Franek, who crossed the finish line in 9:35.62. The field events were no less impressive.  Consider this, Jill Camarena-Williams took the top spot in the women’s shot put, throwing 62 feet and 10.5 inches.

Running for Olympic Gold Medals

Earlier at the United States’ track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon, 400 meter runner Kirani James (coached by former Olympic gold medalist and Hall of Fame college coach, Harvey Glance) ran down the final turn and home stretch alongside LaShawn Merritt. Unfortunately, James had a false start and was disqualified. Both runners were impressive, Merritt more so of the two.

This is the time of year Raymond Clarke, the main character in Love Pour Over Me, lives for. Running and winning championships since middle school, Raymond is an Olympic hopeful. His athletic career takes flight during the time when athletes like Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Evelyn Ashford and Mary Decker Slaney dominated the sport.

A gifted and talented middle distance runner who set records at the national indoor track and field championships, Raymond knows how to hold his own. He’s tough and resilient, unafraid of a challenge. He also loves to run, crisp air pumping through his lungs, his legs stretching out fast and smooth across the pavement. Running sets his mind at ease, makes him feel free. Even now I know, had he been born at a different time, he would have made the 2012 Olympics.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

2012 NBA Championships

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My first musing is about the 2012 NBA Championships.  As a native Ohioan I am elated for LeBron James and the Miami Heat!  I’m happy that LeBron kept moving forward, persevered, and got his ring this year!

Even with his massive talent and athletic gifts the road to the championship for LeBron James wasn’t smooth. He played his heart out in Cleveland but, while there, didn’t have enough pieces to win it all. What he endured after deciding to go to Miami was unlike anything I had ever seen a professional athlete experience. Athletes who’ve committed crimes didn’t seem to get punched in the face as much as LeBron James did. But he endured. He stayed open and made necessary changes . . . changes that paid off.

The road to the 2012 NBA Championships remind me of the road to success in many other areas of life. It’s not always smooth as you ascend to the top, but it’s so worth it. You may have to work harder than you ever thought you could. You may have to remove some things from your life as if making room for the new great things that are knocking on your life’s door, asking you to let them in. You also might get criticized for mistakes, assumed or real, that you make. At times you might feel as if you’re aiming for the top all on your own. Keep climbing. Keep striving. Keep your eye on the prize. If you do, the payoff just might surprise you!

Before I close out this blog post, gotta tell you, I also like the Oklahoma City Thunder (love Russell Westbrook’s game and energy). Those guys are going to be around for years to come, making for great NBA playoff and NBA Finals series. Akin to what LeBron James did, I appreciate how the Oklahoma City Thunder overcame challenges and criticisms to reach the level they reached this year. As a former track and cross-country runner I know the loss stings, but they’ll be back. LeBron experienced eight years of losses before he got his ring. Hopefully, the guys on the Oklahoma City Thunder realize that and can see LeBron’s win as a vision of what they will experience.

Now I’m waiting to see what Eli and Peyton Manning will do after the NFL season kicks off. I’m also hoping that Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles give their supporters something to cheer about! Sports . . . don’t you love it!

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!