An Ache in the Brain

The ache I have in my brain is a grand sort of ache.  It reminds me of aching muscles following a successful run.  Since I've returned to school and started living healthy, I love how my mind and body feel.  Not only do I feel good, I also believe these quests of mine - both the intellectual and the physical - are moral:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.                                                                                                               Romans 2:2

This week was the first week of Spanish, so maybe I should have written:

Y no se adapten (no se conformen) a este mundo, sino transfórmense mediante la renovación de su mente, para que verifiquen cuál es la voluntad de Dios: lo que es bueno y aceptable (agradable) y perfecto.

 La profesora believes in immersion, apparently.  She speaks only Spanish during class.  She made an exception to discuss the "business" of the class so she could be sure everyone understood the syllabus and course policies.  Aside from that, it's strictly Spanish.

When I get mentally stressed, my heart rate slows, my breathing deepens, and my vision expands.  It's been a week of mental stress.  I'm taking advantage of the physical side effects - I think they're sharpening my body for Sunday's triathalon.  Or something like that.

I've never felt more alive than I feel when I'm learning something new or when I'm pushing myself far out of my comfort zone.  Henry David Thoreau said he went to the woods for the same reason I'm back in school and the same reason I'm participating in a triathalon: 

I went the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life, and not to come to the end of my life, and discover that I had not lived.

The philosophy professor I admired once likened living like Thoreau to standing on her tiptoes and grabbing all life has to offer.  Here's to standing on my tiptoes, sucking the marrow out of life!