WORK...

Well i'm just sitting at home waiting till 6 pm so i can drive to work and freeze....in the freezer while lifting 50lb boxes and barrels of frozen chicken and bbq sauce. Work is hard but it's also rewarding, rewarding in the experiences and work ethic we are able to walk away with. lets not forget the moolah $$$$! ok ok and the pallet jack is pretty fun to drive though even though i kinda suck at it on turns..... Anyways im just thankful that i am able to have a job in this tough economy and i am furthurm0re thankful that its just a summer job and that i can leave after this summer and go to a good school to learn and get the skills for a better more satisfying job. Summer jobs are good for summer but i wish i could hang out with my besties with testies more. see you guys this weekend!

kindergarden.

i had the privilege of running into our kindergarden teacher mrs. heinen at ohsu the other day. and she is just so sweet. i almost wish we could have had her as a teacher in high school also because even just in our 30 minutes talking she was so encouraging and engaging and just God-honoring. i saw her on the phone as i was helping some people find the elevators and i ran back to find her. i tapped her on the shoulder and just said, "hey mrs. heinen it's austin layton. i was in your class almost 14 years ago..." and then just kinda stood there hoping she'd remember. and she did! her eyes lit up and she gave me a hug. i asked her why she was there and she told me that her mom had been in the hospital for almost a week but was hopefully getting out soon. someone somewhere said (i swear someone did say this about someone else), "you can't help being with her for five minutes without breaking into worship or bowing your heads in prayer because she is so constantly in communication with Jesus" granted that quote is not exact and i think it was someone like billy graham talking about joni eareckson tada but i can't be sure. what i do know is that i felt that way with mrs. heinen. the conversation centered around what i was doing with my life and how she had been which is all very physical but also so spiritual like paul refers to (see "spirituals" post) that concerns the physical.  i walked away from our conversation refreshed and feeling as if God had been right there with us.  mrs. heinen said nothing of profound significance and it was not an intensely theological conversation but instead she just exuded holiness. it was obvious that she was unique and set apart from the world.  let's be honest, she is on the downhill slope towards death but i can envision her wholeheartedly relating to 2 timothy 4:6-8, "for i am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  i have fought the good fight, i have finished the race, i have kept the faith. finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."

bikram yoga

there comes in a time in everyone's life when one must ruffle their feathers and take flight into uncharted territory. or just do something new. Whichever metaphor works for you.

Arriving back to P-town where the temp hovers around 55 degrees apparently now in May and June, I was looking forward to a nice little break from the intense heat of Texas. But when I was called upon to spend 90 minutes in a 105 degree oven sweating while trying to perform yoga poses, I was all in contrary to my previous thought process. I mean why not? I'm sure this stretching will be good for my loins and my athleticism. How hard could this really be?

We arrived to our little cookout in downtown beaverton and walked through the door. sidenote: there's always that awkwardness when walking into a place you never been before. But I really felt out of place when the first dude I come across is shirtless, shoeless, rocking a blue tat down the middle of his back, and best of all tie-dye spandex, which reveals all. But hey, this is what I expected, right? Just some diehard yoga freak. I'm just trying this stuff out, so don't judge me in my shorts and t-shirt. After removing our shoes and mistakenly walking into the women's changing room (don't worry no one was in there) we got our mats and got ready to hit the room. This lady handed us a towel that was a more beach towel size than the small hand towel I expected. It's a good thing because I used every square inch of that, or at least my sweat did.

As we entered the sauna, we were greeted with a fresh blast of hot air that clung to the skin and wouldn't let go. There were dead people all around us. I mean they were just laying there chilling obviously in some deep mental meditation. Psshhaaa! none of that crap for me. What I didn't realize was that they were just chilling getting ready for the bodily beat down we were about to experience. The instructor walks in with a cheerful hello and surprisingly calls us out by name as the "new guys." thanks dude. He wore some short shirts, no shirt, and possessed calmness only known to those after blowing on some bong. no comment. He talked for basically the entire 90 minutes, teaching and instructing and explaining each position. After doing a breathing exercise for a good 10 min that sounded like a dying buffalo whenever the class exhaled, we started the yoga. By this time I came around to the idea that I was gonna be stuck here for another hour twenty sucking in this hot air. So I tried to take control of my mind before i started freaking out and hyperventilating. As soon we were done holding each position we got to chill out on our mats to recover. much needed. It was a process of doing a stretch then relaxing. stretch then relax. I was tempted to just stay relaxed the whole time and have a nice nap, but bong boy probably would've gotten on my case.

Sooner than I expected the class was over and we exited inhaling cool air. ahhhhh. felt so good. I don't know if I'll head back there and do some more bikram yoga, but it made me glad that I tried it out and did something new. It's good to challenge yourself and find out how you handle certain situations especially when they are way out of your norm. now.......where's that club downtown?