Saturday, October 15, 2011

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Truly!  It's 60 degrees and brilliantly sunny.  I just consumed the worlds best bacon/egg/cheese/everything bagel following a very decent run.  And now, I have the full day to get sh*t done.

I've had several opportunities this week to stop and recognize just how good life is.  A dear friend of ours, the best man in our wedding (22 years ago) went to sleep Sunday and never woke up.  Just like that.  Another friend, with whom I run (well, sort of, we run in the same pack, only he's way out ahead of me...) was just diagnosed with cancer.  Just like that.  Running a marathon one day, headed for surgery, chemo, radiation and a world of hurt one day later.

I used to find these kinds of things unsettling, but I don't really anymore.  I'm not really surprised when I discover that my body isn't working as well as it used to, or when someone else's gives up on them.  It is what it is.  An inevitable reality of aging.  Not in a fatalistic sort of way, that I expect bad things to happen, but when they do, I am not really shocked.

It makes me want to run more and sleep less.  Play more and clean less.  Laugh more and scold less.  Love more and scorn less.

Life is pretty darned simple.  I get what I get, and it's my bad if I didn't make the most of it.  It makes running on a beautiful morning with a friend a wonderful experience.  Drinking coffee with my daughter afterwards a joy.

Life is good.