Human Nature

I've spent more than my fair share of time the past week grumbling about the weather. I can't even begin to count the "woe is me" whines that have left my mouth as run after run has been given up for one reason or another. "This sucks" has become such a permanent thought in my mind that I have had a hard time seeing the beauty in the drifts of snow that lay thick around the house.

This is why I love reading blogs. You realize how alike we all are in our obsessions, in our neverending chatter of our minds, in our struggles to make sense of our emotions as we react to the world around us. A blogger from Alaska laments the lack of snow and the clear, cold weather; a blogger from Southern California hates the "cold" rain and 50 degree weather she has to run in, and you know that somewhere, a Hawaiian runner is complaining that the 80 degrees and sun is just too warm to run comfortably. And here I sit, hating the 14 inches of snow that has fallen in the past few days because it means I can't get outside!

What I need to do is celebrate the fact that I have found something I love to do so much that I miss it when I can't. I need to celebrate the quiet line of trees covered in snow contrasted against the clear, dark sky with the single star high above. I need to enjoy the Christmas lights, illuminating the snow like hidden jewels. Each moment is a gift, one that I can't have back when I finally realize that it is all good. Not just the runs, not just the triumphs, not just the days when everything goes the way I planned. Learning this essential truth is much harder than training to qualify for Boston. But perhaps as I log the miles that take me toward that goal, I can log the inner miles that will take me that much closer to that goal as well.