Five things friday

Congratulations, you've rounded out yet another week and made it to FRIDAY! And now for the best part: my five random things... ;)

1. Did you hear "we" have a new pope? For all the talk about how terrible religion is or how many people have left the faith, the Pope still garners a lot of attention in the world. And I gotta admit: when I first heard it was an American my mind went straight to, "Oh boy, did trump actually manage to buy the pope too?!" I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised, but I am glad that doesn't appear to be the case. The new pope sounds a lot like the last pope, and that seems a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
2. Speaking of the Church... Today's Friday Update from Mike Woodruff contained this grand ol' summary of church history from former Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson: "In the beginning, the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise." Ain't that the truth! Sometimes I wonder if I don't get too fixated on Jesus (I remember a theology prof warning against the "only Jesus" movement), but I think I'd rather be guilty of too much Jesus than not enough.
3. Completely unrelated to all that... I sold three bicycles on FB Marketplace this week. One was an old child's bike that we picked up used when our now-14-year-old grandchild was learning to ride; one was my mom's old single-speed Rollfast bike; and the other was a Huffy 3-speed that I snagged when working in self-storage. I only made $20 (ended up giving the child's bike away), but I had a really strange thing happen. The guy who bought the Rollfast came to pick it up - and I thought he had a familiar-sounding last name - and he says, "Wow, my parents used to live in this house!" They are not who we bought the house from, but we have occasionally received mail for them. Small world!
4. I have started back into a running routine again. Following the April 27th marathon I did a "reverse taper" to ease back in. Just a couple 2-3 mile jogs last week. This week I picked things up a little more, and did 13 miles this morning. As of right now I'm planning to run M-W-F-S, with M, W, S being somewhere between 3-6 miles, and a double-digit long run on Fridays (10-13 miles). We'll see how it goes. I don't currently have any events on the agenda until a couple two or three (or more) half marathons towards fall. All told, I'm feeling pretty good though.
5. "The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." - Jiddu Krishnamurti (wow, is that not a doozy of a thought? Whew!) 

Alrighty, there's lots of lawn work to do, among other things. You can't just sit around all day and read my blog!! ;) 

Peace