New Life

Yesterday my wife and I decided not to wait so long to get a new dog.  We brought home what the SPCA called a shepherd/chow-chow mix.

What do I already know this dog will teach us?

(1) Unconditional love--she definitely shows it
(2) Patience--as we figure out how to get her to bark a little more to let us know she wants to go out (without barking all the time for no reason) and what she wants to eat
(3) Balancing responsibility--as we add dog walking back onto our to do list
(4) Peace--which this dog seems to feel at almost all times even though she was coming from a shelter

I'm sure we'll be abel to teach her a few things, too.  It just demonstrates the very cool interchange between people and animals. And, after the former student's passing this week, I am very happy to be happily celebrating new life in the continuing week of contrasts.

Praise God!

More than One Positive Story

Yesterday, I posted about more than one type of team. Today, as I prepare for a marathon starting 24 hours and 30 minutes from now, I think about a comment I received shortly after a FB post yesterday. My FB post mentioned wanting to bring back a very positive story on Monday. A friend posted "U being positive is d story :-)" It suddenly occurred to me that while I am shooting for a personal best and a time that will allow me to register for the Boston marathon for 2013, there are many stories I could come away from tomorrow's race with that would be just as positive. A positive ending to three more monts of hard work. A positive ending to the many wonderful exchanges I have had with fellow runners on FB and other sties. A positive ending to the effort. A positive ending to all the runs with friends. A positive ending to all the sacrifices that I and my family have made for my running. I wouldn't even say that the personal best and BQ would be the most positive ending. While I once wrote that it life is about much more than the journey, it is all about results, now, I'm thinking that the journey has been pretty important. There will be life lessons learned during tomorrow's 26.2 miles that I'll take with me forever regardless of whether I end up being able to run Boston 2013 or not.

And with the attitude going in that I am just going to experience a marvelous gift from God, I think that I will be more at ease to just run for joy and run my best rather than being worried the whole time. I was tired when I got home at 12:30 AM after a very long day that included a very important meeting, a final defense, a dinner with potential students, a celebration with the student who had defended, an open mic night at which my oldest son played, getting the battery going on the drummer's car after the open mic night was over, and dropping of my son's girlfriend at about midnight. Perhaps sleeping well was just because I was so tired. But perhaps sleeping well was because for once, before a race, I am at ease rather than very worked up. And I will hopefully take the gift of being at ease into a second evening of good sleep and a great run tomorrow.