BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//class_vcard from TroyWolf.com//NONSGML Version 1//EN
REV:2013-05-23 05:29:52
FN:El Farris
N:Farris;El;;;
NICKNAME:Running from Hell with El

ADR;TYPE=home:;Virginia;;;;;
EMAIL;TYPE=internet,pref:farrisburke@cox.net
URL;TYPE=work:http://gravatar.com/runningfromhellwithel
NOTE:My essence is captured by the mythical Phoenix, who rose from the ashes and was reborn. I have walked a difficult path to get here, but with three children on my back, the future has never looked brighter. Honestly, this isn’t something I planned out or anything. I don’t plan. I don’t lay my clothes out for tomorrow or make meal menus a week in advance and calendars confuse me. But I was thinking as I was running the other day about heaven and hell and trouble. I find trouble; I make trouble; I get in trouble; I get troubled; I make everyone else troubled. I’m trouble. I sniff out trouble with the inevitability of a kid tossing a tantrum after too much birthday. Even as an adult attending church, I cannot contain snickering and inappropriate giggles. What else do you need to know about me? Well, I run. I’ve been running since I turned 14. A lot of abused girls put on weight as a protective instinct and it worked pretty well for a time, but carrying around extra weight is a burden that I didn’t like shouldering. So I went on one of those diets and started to run and I’ve been running since. Whenever I stop running, I land in a lot of trouble. I ran through a childhood that could well be described as hell. I ran through major depressive episodes and often teetered one step from the edge of a breakdown.  Through running, I held onto my sanity, my life and whatever belief in God I’ve managed to cobble together. Each step I take, no matter how physically painful, draws me a shade closer into my better angels. And the steps have become painful over the years, which is how I earned the nickname Phoenix. Some mornings I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus and the truth is, I was. I survived a collision with a metro bus, and it’s fair to say that the accident fucked me up. And yet I keep rising from the pyre of a burning fire and as I run I realize that whatever hell is or isn’t, as long as I keep rising, my spirit will never die. © December 2, 2011 E. L. Farris.
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