Gratitude and Running Shoes

My running shoes have been with me, near me, available to me, for a very long time now.   I’ve turned to them when I need to process life’s ups downs and turns. For a few months now, my running seemed forced.  It was much easier to sit at home vs. lace them up. I allowed other priorities to take over the time I used to dedicate to myself.   I justified in my own head that I didn’t “need” to run...I had nothing to prove.
I let races I signed up for, come and go.
More often than not, I missed my weekly running goals.
My endurance suffered.
Running felt like just one more thing on the list.
And, then one day, I just started again.
I drove to Connecticut the day after school let out and toed the line for a timed race.   I ran in the heat and the mud and honestly, I let a lot of my life just settle where it was.   I took control back of me. I felt a sense of gratitude.
Fast forward a week, to a yoga conference in Arizona.   Still not adjusted to the timezone, I woke early, and on instinct, grabbed my shoes.
I found it again.
I found the why in why I run.
I got lost in that split second of weightlessness between each stride.
I opened myself to knowing I have nothing to prove, but I do have a lot to learn. 
I have no limits and I am wasting my precious resources when I impose them.
I was able to focus on what is going right in my world.  To see what a spectacular life I am living, in part because I choose to point my running shoes out the door.
I decided to be happy.


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