Yesterday was National Running Day, and how did we celebrate? By taking a much needed rest day. We had been doing the RunnersWorld summer streak....running at least a mile daily. We managed 9 days of it, but realized that even a slow mile is not enough recovery for recovery days for us. Sorry for blowing the streak but boy, did the day off feel good.
Plus Dean had some good news....he had had a biopsy on Monday of one of some new lumps in his abdomen. It turned out to be benign....just scar tissue. So we just relaxed and felt happy yesterday.
We had a horrible summer storm with waves of hail and lightning overnight. It was an awesome storm. Our trees and plants look bedraggled today, but we really needed the rain. We just did a quick scan of our house this morning and didn't see any major damage but there are small chips of paint all over the patio. It looks like house repainting time. We may have more of the same weather later today.
One of my high school classmates died 2 days ago. I did not know her well then, plus have not seen her for 43 years, but have been thinking of her ever since Tuesday. It makes you feel empty, like the world has been lessened somehow. I wonder what her life after high school was like? I know she was married, had kids, became a teacher, but that is about all I know. I wonder what subjects she taught? Was she good at it? Did she touch lives? It is hard to imagine that she just isn't any more. When I brushed my teeth this morning, I thought that she wasn't brushing hers. All the little non-important, simple acts that make up a life, she isn't doing. She isn't anymore, except in memory.
I had always hoped to see John Denver and also Mary Travers perform again, but they died too soon. I have always thought about getting back to a high school reunion again to see how the lives of my classmates have turned out, but some of them are dying too soon. It always seemed that there was plenty of time. "Time is the coin of your life. it is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent," said Carl Sandburg
Her death also was an additional reminder why we need to keep exercising and eating healthily. We all do! It makes a big difference, and the stakes are too high to do otherwise.
"I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived." Willa Cather
On the way to volunteer at service dogs this morning I saw a large hawk perched on the crosspiece of the cross high atop the steeple of our church. He was strikingly lit by the morning sun and was calmly and objectively perusing all he saw...he seemed to be much wiser than all the humans speeding by in their cars not even seeing the day. Maybe the views from that elevation give a better perspective, such as in the movie "Dead Poet's Society" when Mr. Keating had all the students stand on their desks in order to look at the world in a different way. As Mary Oliver suggests: "I look; morning to night I am never done with looking. Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around as though with your eyes wide open." I hope my eyes are wide open, and that I am really looking. Carpe Diem.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the Continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in Mankind,
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
John Donne
Looking together in the same direction.
Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift apart.
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