Beginning

Distance: 3 miles
Start time: 8:24 am
Run Duration: 32 minutes
Pace: 10.67 minutes/mile
Temperature: 81 degrees
Humidity: 79%
Location: Memorial Park, Houston, TX

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning." Louis L'Amour

What does a beginning look like? I suppose it looks like Wednesday morning at Memorial Park. It looks like a 49 y/o female stepping out of her very used Chevy Tracker. She is stiff and feeling slightly beat up, sore from an hour and a half massage last night. The massage therapist asked her if she wanted him to work on the knots around her scapulae and she assured him that, yes...she did. He did. She feels every point where his elbows pushed below and around the musculature of her back. She wonders if she is bruised. She doesn't care. She needs to run today. She needs to sweat.

A beginning looks like the same woman stepping onto the trail, checking her watch and moving about 20 yards down the trail before she spots a friend among the cars in the parking lot. She quickly calls out to the friend, they greet each other and make plans for Saturday night. All smiles they remark on how good the other looks. And they mean it. Neither woman has a molecule of makeup on her face. Neither wants or needs it. They will save that for Saturday night. The woman feels something of beginning in the plans for the weekend but it is only because the spectre of unplanned weekends doesn't hang over her anymore. Her weekends are hers now. There is no doubt, no question. No more.

The woman bids her friend goodbye and continues on her run. She is in no hurry today. She is out for the sweat. She finishes her miles and finds a massive live oak to shade her stretch. Time is not a concern. She moves through sun salutations and loses herself to the morning. This is what a beginning looks like - presence.

Today I lift up my gratitude for the ability to listen to my inner voice. I pray for strength in the next few days and weeks when I have no doubt that I will face lonely times. I give thanks for recent life lessons learned and I lift up the man who showed me so much love and who I also believe must be hurting today. I pray that he is safe and secure and I am grateful that he was part of my life for a short, sweet time.