FitSugar

Get Motivated: Homeless Running Group

FitSugar — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:00:00 PDT

Running is truly a metaphor for life. Anne Mahlum, founder of the homeless running program Back on My Feet believes so since there is always another mile to run, and each mile is covered one step at a time.

No stranger to early morning runs, the veteran marathoner Mahlum often found herself being cheered on by the homeless of Philly. One morning, she asked herself this question:

Why am I running past these guys? I'm moving my life forward every day – and these guys are standing in the same spot.

Her answer was to found Back On My Feet, a running group for the homeless. The requirements to join in the fun of the running group are simple, folks must live in one of the three facilities affiliated with the organization and be clean and sober for 30 days. Members receive new running gear, shoes and clothes, and the group runs three mornings a week starting around 6:00 a.m. The 54 homeless members and the 2,500 volunteers together have logged over 5,000 miles. Impressive indeed!

There's more so

Mahlum hopes to expand Back On My Feet to include at least 10 Philadelphia shelters before taking the program to other cities. She's a practical woman who knows that a pair of running shoes is a far cry from a place to live, but the discipline and focus of running can definitely translate into the real world. And her running group is a support group as well; it even has a job training program as a partner.

I say, lace up and take it to the streets!

Source

5 Ways Spending Less Will Create More Happiness

LearnVest — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:15:49 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Recently, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an op-ed piece about the “Haimish Line.” The Haimish Line is an invisible line sometimes crossed when you go from spending less to spending more - in doing so, Brooks contends, you often sacrifice warmth and connection to attain luxury and space. According to Brooks, “haimish” is a Yiddish word that suggests “warmth, domesticity and unpretentious conviviality.”

An exclusive, white-tablecloth, four-star restaurant where servers disappear and diners are on their Blackberries would be north of the Haimish Line. A small, casual diner on the corner bustling with loud conversations from neighborhood folks talking over each other would be south of the Haimish Line. A new dorm building with a shiny, new, unused lounge would be north of the Haimish Line; the well-worn lounge of ratty furniture that students veer toward would be staunchly planted south of the Haimish Line. The Haimish Line even slices across neighborhoods: densely packed urban neighborhoods where kids run home from school and and people have stoop conversations versus spread-out suburbs of isolated living in separate homes and cars.

Brooks advises that we learn to spend our money well and stay south of the Haimish Line.

I found this essay so compelling because money often buys privacy, space, exclusivity and “luxury”-all of which are the very opposite of “unpretentious conviviality.” In America, the picture of success is a bigger house (where the family is more spread out), moving to the suburbs (with more distance between neighbors), a nicer car (to be more vigilant about spills in), and flying first class (ok, so some things are not worth getting all concerned about “the Haimish Line” over).

Read on for ways to spend less and create happiness.

Occupy Wall Street: Make Love, Not Money

Annie Scudder — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:55:39 PDT

You can find pot, condoms, and topless women at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York's Zuccotti Park. In an article today, the New York Post painted a picture of debauchery among the protests, filled with homeless looking for free food and young people getting down in sleeping bags.

The paper interviewed a 24-year-old named Dave, "a scrawny, unshaven miscreant in filthy clothes," who claimed he was running from the law and hiding from warrants among the protestors. The reporter was also offered pot for $15 and heroine for $10. And a woman who said "I haven’t hooked up with any guys . . . but one of my friends did have sex in a tarp with a guy last night" was also quoted. They might not have bathing options, but luckily there are free condoms on hand.

Organizers have reportedly set up an internal police group to cut down on the drinking, drugs, and sex that could distract from the message. Depending on your point of view, this probably sounds like a 1960s-style free love adventure, or your version of a shower-less nightmare.

Source: Flickr User Shameel Arafin