Yesterday morning, I shuffled with the shuffle.  This morning I did, too.

My husband recently won an iPod shuffle.  It’s so small and light you don’t even know it’s there.  And it’s not the latest version which is ridiculously small.  That one is so small they had to put the buttons on the ear bud cord.  Which means you have to use those ear buds.  And I’d rather use the kind that hook over the ears, so I’m glad Seth won the one he did so I could use it and plug in my own headphones.    (That word – headphones – sounds so dated and clunky and makes me think of Princess Leia with her cinnamon buns on the sides of her head.  When I was plugging in yesterday morning, I thought to myself that my hook-over-the-ears headphones weighed more than the device that I was plugging them into!)

It’s a simple tool.  You load it up with music; flip the switch to play straight through or shuffle; push play; listen; skip ahead if you want.  It can clip to your clothes and the buttons are easy to find and push.  Even while shufflin’.

“Shufflin’ with the shuffle” is my new phrase for my current state of movement while listening to said device.  It may also be known as survival speed.  Or girl-who-used-to-run-a-lot-and-weigh-less is trying to become girl-who-does-run-a-lot-and-does-weigh-less.  I wish I were further along than I am.  But I’m not.  My right knee doesn’t appreciate being treated like it belongs to a skinny-runner-girl when it doesn’t.  And so I shuffle.

As much as I cringe a little bit from the name, I’m giving the Couch to 5-K training plan a go.  (I’m on week 2.)  I really don’t want to be or resemble a person of the couch.  And I don’t particularly like 5ks.  They are too fast for this non-speedy gal.  I much prefer the 10k or 1/2 marathon distance.  And I’d someday like to do the marathon again, and drop my time by 10 seconds in order to qualify for the Boston marathon.  Oh, wait a minute.  I’m in a different age category now, so I get 5 extra minutes.  Yippee!  Even so…that feels like a very, very far off dream right now.  But one must start somewhere.  And so I shuffle.

The last two mornings, my husband’s shuffle played an assortment from:

Newsboys

The Beatles

Rescue – The iPod shuffle came from a contest Seth won that Rescue held on their Facebook site.  Coolness! Thanks, guys!

Journey

Phil Wickham

Styx

Michael O’Brien

Keith Greene

PFR

I only hit the skip button a few times.  Even though all the songs weren’t really up-tempo, work-out songs, I liked them enough to listen anyway.  One such song was the one that came up from Keith Greene.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood

Today, these words seemed to fit with my shufflin’.  I have been feeling dry, old, hard and cold.  I want to be alive to Him and dead to me.  I need softening and washing.

And so I shuffle.  It’s a place to start.  To feel poured out and poured into.  To expend and regain.  To surrender and take up.

I’m believing that consistent shufflin’ in many areas will lead to stronger steps in many areas.

I think the key for me is to not rely on myself for the consistency.  I must plug into the Source, or this will all go nowhere.