Saturday Hikes and Online Dating

Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to go to a local park and hike one of the trails this afternoon. There is a multi-purpose trail that is a little over 4 miles which looked good to me. I have walked other trails at this particular park, but never this one, because my dogs are usually with me and they are not allowed (which makes me wonder how "multi-purpose" the trail really is).

The first thing I noticed as I began my trek was the number of men who like to run/walk without shirts on. Regardless of age or level of physical fitness, most of the men I passed were shirtless. Admittedly, I must have some amount of testosterone surging through my female body, because if I see a man without a shirt, I cannot stop myself from looking. This is bad in two ways. First, if the man is very attractive, I have to say to myself: "Tina, stop staring at his chest. Don't think about nakedness. Think pure thoughts!" On the flip side, if the man is not so attractive, I still can't help but look. But then I say to myself: "Tina, look away right now or else that image will stay in your mind forever...and you wouldn't want that to happen". I realize this sounds rude and/or judgmental. I don't mean disrespect to these men. My point is: When you are in public would you please wear a shirt, for the love! Attractive or not so attractive, either way, put a shirt on!

The other scenery today was breath-taking. I remember a line from some song: "I've never seen blue like that before". That's how the sky looked today...like blue from another world. It was so pretty it almost brought tears to my eyes. The sun shining on my skin felt warm and invigorating. The wildflowers were so pretty that I almost tripped while looking at them, instead of watching where I was going. The best part was being able to push myself, physically, and feel challenged and alive. The human body is such an awe-inspiring thing. It is incredible to feel all your parts working together toward a goal, breathing deeply, moving fast, and feeling the wind in your hair. For most of my life, I was never much of an outdoor kind of person (nor much of an exercise person, for that matter)...but I think I could get used to this. It is so much more interesting than sitting inside, watching TV. I think it must be a sin to sit inside on a day like today. Truly, I felt closer to God than I have in a while...just by spending time walking in His creation (and listening to fabulous Christian music on my I-pod).

In other news, I signed up for a Christian dating site last night. I guess I am tired of not knowing any single guys in my age range, who share similar values. Granted, I have not looked around this site much yet, but I did look at a few profiles of guys in my age range. Most of them say things like "I am looking for someone in her early to mid-20s". So, essentially, they want women at least 10 years younger than them. The flip side of that is the age of men that seem to be viewing my profile (there is a feature where you can see who has viewed you). The average age of most men viewing my profile is 50. I just don't understand men. Is there something wrong with dating someone who is actually your age? Just asking!

I don't have great hopes for this online dating endeavor. I tried the online dating thing about 5 years ago. Actually, I met a guy that was really interesting. We talked for a couple months and I was starting to think, "This could be someone I'd be seriously interested in dating". Little by little, however, red flags started to appear. The biggest one, for me, was that he still lived with his parents (at age 30). He had not moved home because of a difficult time...he had just never moved out. He lived in his parents' basement. This might be shallow on my part, but I think someone who is 30 years old should have lived on his own, at least for a significant amount of time. I am not looking for Bill Gates to provide for me and take care of me. I don't even care about money (obviously, I am a pastor; money is not my motivating force in my life). But someone who knows how to take care of himself and knows who he is, these are non-negotiables to me. The first day of online dating does not look so hopeful, but we will see how it goes.

I realize that today's post is not the deepest of all posts. But I promise something more theologically stimulating will be coming soon. Hopefully the sheer excitement of my life will be inspiring to you (ha ha ha!). Now I must go and take a shower because, after hiking around this afternoon, I smell like a teenage boy. Have a fabulous weekend, blog friends!