After a long van ride from Minneapolis, The Ride:Well tour leaders arrived safely into San Diego Wednesday night and slowly, the cyclists are arriving today. We’re being hosted by the fabulous Faith Chapel church who have generously allowed us to take over their campus with our bikes, sleeping bags, and spandex.

It’s been great getting to know each person as they come in and hear why they’ve decided to donate their summer to riding bikes for Blood:Water Mission. There are definitely some serious cyclists on our team (the south team) as well as some newbies, like me.

We’ll be spending pretty much every minute for the next two months with each other, and with that comes cooking for each other, cleaning up after each other, and doing each others’ laundry. We rely on the generosity of host churches and homes, and sometimes with that, surprises abound.

That’s where the part about the janitor and the wake up call comes in.

One of the other leaders, Erin, and I volunteered to do laundry last night for the people who needed it (we have a very limited amount of clothes with us so laundry is almost a daily task). The church has a laundry area — it just happens to be pretty far from the area we were sleeping. We decided it would be easier for us to sleep in the classroom next to the laundry area so we could keep the laundry going into the night and first thing in the morning.

We planned on waking up around 6:30a to finish the last load, but at about 5:45a, the door to the classroom opens, and a very sweet, older man walks in the room. He turns on the light, sees us passed out in our sleeping bags, apologizes, and leaves.

I bet he wasn’t expecting that.

We went back to sleep and five minutes later, he returns with another man — a tall, muscular, Harley-Davidson looking guy with a big beard and bigger biceps.

“Are you ladies supposed to be sleeping in here?”

Oh crap. We are so busted.

“Well…” (I said, stammering)… “We thought it would be easier for us to keep the laundry going if we were in here…” (I continued, trying to dig my way out and wondering how crazy my bed-head looked.)

“It’s no problem,” the Harley guy continued. “I just feel bad for you guys sleeping on the floor when you could have been in the Bridal Suite down the hall. It’s so much more comfortable in there.”

So, our Harley guy ended up being a very sweet teddy-bear of a guy and even as I walked by later with our sleeping bags, he explained how badly he felt that we were sleeping on the floor.

And so begins the journey.

We’ll have a few days of training and cycling here in San Diego, and then Sunday, we’ll be leaving from Faith Chapel church (time is yet to be determined, but if you’re in the area, I’d love for you to see us off and will update my Twitter and Facebook Page with the details when I know).

Thank you so much for all your prayers. This is going to be an amazing journey for an amazing cause!

Oh, and just because you’re not doing a bike ride, did you know there are some easy and super fun ways to help support Blood:Water? Make a “lemon:aid” stand, coordinate a water walk, or….click here for some more awesome ideas.

“I could never do what you’re doing!” I told a guy named Cody at a church in Dallas. I was speaking there and he had just cycled in with the Ride:Well team, a group of fifteen or so people who were biking across the country.

Rattling off a list of reasons (including a very legit heart issue) he told me to one, get my heart fixed…and two, do the ride.

So last summer I made the vow. If I could get my heart fixed, I’d do it.

And my heart got fixed.

And I signed up for the ride.

We begin the ride across the country for Blood:Water Mission on June 6, but as part of my training, Thursday I, along with two other cyclists will be riding 100 miles (also known as a century ride).

They’ve done it before. In fact, one of them just rode 165 miles a few weekends ago.

I’ve only gone 50 miles. Once.

Most of my rides are 15-25 miles long. I think I had a 36 miler in there too.

But 100?

I twittered about it Wednesday and had so many people say, “I could NEVER do that!”

Yeah – me too! I’m still thinking this is a crazy idea!

But here’s the deal.

I CAN.

YOU CAN.

If me, a non-athletic, pasty white, nerd-author girl can ride a bike 100 miles, so can you.

Or maybe it’s not cycling, but there’s something you’ve been putting off.

But you need to do it.

You have a choice – say YES to the unknown, the scary, the uncomfortable, the exhilarating, the embarrassing, and you will be saying YES to an adventure you could never in a million years dream up.

So, you may not be riding 100 miles today (in 90* weather, with 60% humidity — not that I’m paying attention to my Weather App…) but in solidarity, would you do SOMETHING a little out of the norm today?

If you’d like to see where we’re riding, you can click here.

If you want to donate to our ride (the money doesn’t go TO us, it goes to support Blood:Water mission) you can click here.

And for the love, tell us what’s one crazy thing you want to do, or one crazy thing you’re going to do today!

I’ll be back as quickly as possible to continue the series on slowness and let you know how the ride went! You can follow my Twitter here to know the latest!

I stayed out too late last night with dear friends.

Not a hurried feeling in the world; honest conversation and dreaming over appetizers and dessert. They live in California. I live in Nashville. I cherish every moment I can spend with them.

This morning, however, was a different scenario. California traffic lived up to its inconvenient name. Google Maps said my drive to the airport, with traffic, would be 35 minutes. So as anyone who has ever driven in California would do, I allotted an hour.

I was still about ten miles out (and crawling along the 55) when my safe “hour before departure” time passed. I looked in front of me. Nothing but brake lights. I looked to my left. The HOV lane was empty. The fine if I got caught? $340. The cost of me not being home on time? Hmmm. I’ll say more than that.

Swerving (illegally) over to the HOV lane, I sped along (illegally) praying the police were tied up somewhere else. I made it to my exit with five minutes until the final “30 minutes” window to check my bag was closed.

I didn’t refill the gas in my rental car and told the guys checking me in to just bill me what I was due as I dashed off. Running up the stairs to the terminal, I was sweaty when I arrived at the ticketing counter at exactly 8:21, 29 minutes before my plane was to depart.

The agent took mercy on me, and somehow finagled a plan that got me and my bag back to Nashville when I was expected to arrive.

Phew.

So here I sit on the plane, still sweaty, thankful I had my heart surgery because it probably would have exploded in my morning of rush.

And now, the pilot just came on the intercom and told us due to weather in Dallas, our take off has been delayed 90 minutes.

All that rush and now I’m stuck.

My mind instantly goes to how I’ll be bored for the next 90 minutes. How I wish I wouldn’t have hopped in the HOV lane. How I wish I would have filled up my rental car at $5 less a gallon than what I’ll be charged. How I wish I wouldn’t have skipped breakfast.

Why can’t life be more like last night? Slow. Peaceful. Fulfilling.

Legal…

Can it be?

All these thoughts hit me this morning in light of a book I’ve been reading this week called “In Praise of Slowness” by Carl Honore. (His name actually ends with an “e” with the little accent mark over it, but I have no idea how to make that on my iPhone…sorry, Carl, if you read this.)

Honore takes an objective look at how our culture has fallen into a “cult of speed” and while not advocating an overly-idealistic lifestyle of slowness or sloth, he does offer a way for readers to contextualize a more peaceful, slow, and healthy lifestyle any of us can make with some intentional changes.

I’ve never done a book study on my blog before, but I really believe this book has a message that can teach us all something.

Since blogging on my phone in an airplane is not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish, rather than beginning today, I thought we could start the study on Tuesday.

You don’t need the book to follow along, but I can’t recommend it enough. And Amazon has it for only $6 right now.

Pick up a copy if you can, and I really look forward to exploring some of Honore’s message with you.

Do you feel the need to slow down?

I met my friend Ryan Skoog on a trip to Minneapolis a few months ago.

One of the many things Ryan does is dream up and execute really cool ideas.

One of these ideas is The Volunteer Card. Below is a little video describing it, but let’s just say it’s what every single person traveling to volunteer needs, and it is ridiculously inexpensive starting at $25!

• discounted flights
• cars
• food
• supplies
• insurance for everything for every trip for a year
• and my favorite – access to call a real, live doctor and someone who can translate medical-speak in whatever language you need it to be translated in.

That would have come in darn-handy when I came down with mono in Russia.

So watch this little video (it has an Aussie accent on it), and if you’re one who travels, or manages teams of volunteers for any kind of trip – domestic or overseas – definitely look into The Volunteer Card.

(Thanks Ryan, for being such a smart guy!)

Last year was my first year really traveling and speaking to support my first book, Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic, as well as hosting some Compassion Sundays at churches, leading staff development trainings and retreats at churches, and talking to students about addiction. Oh, then there was also a two-week trip to India.

I didn’t keep track of the days, but I did keep all my hotel keys (they’ll give you an extra if you ask nicely)…and from my best guess, I was gone somewhere around 120-150 nights.

That’s pretty much a third of the year.

Because it was so new to me, and I have a single-track mind, I didn’t really think about how much I missed my husband, who only got to be there maybe five nights the entire year.

Now that I have the travel routine down, this year I was punched in the face with something unexpected. Well, it should be expected…I just wasn’t expecting it.

I really miss my husband when I travel.

It’s great to have made friends all over the country, and I know when I visit a city there’s usually somebody there I know and can have coffee and a good conversation with…but…living half the year away from my husband of seven years went from “just a season of life” to “No. Freaking. Way.”

I can’t do what I do and be the best I can be at it without him.

We had planned on looking at our budget at the end of the year to see if we could afford having him quit his “real” job but after my first trip in 2010, I called him.

“We need to look at it now. There’s no way I can do this much longer by myself.”

To me, that seems like a very needy statement. And needy is not something I like to portray. I left home when I was barely 17 years old and was fully self-sufficient until we got married when I was 23. I proved I didn’t need anyone to be happy or to be financially successful.

More and more though, I realize needing my husband really isn’t me showing a sign of weakness. It’s hard to admit that my road-warrior armor has fallen off and I’m left exposed and empty when he’s not with me. At first, I felt that made me a little co-dependent, but instead, I’ve realized how much we compliment each other and how “one” we truly are. When you’re away from that “one” person…part of you does go missing.

It’s okay to need each other.

(Like, duh, Anne Jackson…)

And so we just took one of those crazy leaps of faith. The Hub’s last day at his “real” job with his “real” salary is today and most of the time, he’ll be coming with me on trips (especially trips like this one, where I’m gone for eight solid days).

The thing that helps us do this isn’t that I’m making a ton of money (Hello. I write books!) It’s because we’re almost debt free – we only have one car left that we have payments on. Other than that, we just have our monthly expenses…so we’re able to make this work, at least for a little while. Sure, we can only see in front of us for the next year or so, but…it’s better than nothing.

I know we would both appreciate your prayers as we begin this new season. Not only will Chris be able to road manage me, he’ll be able to focus more on creating music, which is his passion. And there’s nothing better than seeing your husband get to do what he loves to do.

Speaking of his music, if you haven’t downloaded his free EP, you can grab it here on NoiseTrade. It’s free…but there’s also an option of leaving him a tip in the tip jar. So don’t be afraid to do that if you’ve enjoyed his music.

Here’s to living a better story!