New Calendars
Another year completed. If you're like me, you sit with the shiny new calendar and the current calendar and begin in January and page by page, review the year passed and mark mileposts in the year to come.
There are birthdays of loved ones. Big events coming. But then as you reflect on the months past, you realize how many unplanned, last minute details that seemed to interrupt, actually made the year so much richer.
I was a little bummed about my own birthday this near, not because the number - 43. Not because of another year of life finished. I think I was bummed because 42 may have been the best year of my life so far. There's more gray strands in my hair, more wrinkles and freckles and sunspots on my skin, but also more laughter, more people who make my life better, and more wisdom and experience.
42 was definitely my best running year. 42 also marked 10 years of running for me. I set new personal records in every distance. I ran my first ultra. I traveled to races. And paradoxically, while I clocked my fastest times, I discovered there's more to running than PR's.
There were more events where I took my time and enjoyed the struggle of the miles with friends. I laughed my way through more challenges. I embraced discomfort in a different way.
This time last year I had no idea what 2017 would bring. As I sit and consider 2018, I'm trying to wrap my mind around all of the unknowns that will come. This time next year, what people and places and activities will I be remembering? What success and mistakes will I be reviewing?
It's a weighty concept, this "out with the old, in with the new." I know my youngest will graduate high school, transitioning my husband and I into the Empty Nest. There will be travel. New races. My first 50 miler. My first marathon in my home state. And these I can map on my calendar. But the majority of the writing in my calendar is still to come. I'm intimidated and excited. And if I'm honest a little afraid.
The best we can do is to do our best. Applying the lessons we've taken from the old calendars, we will create our new calendars.
I was a little bummed about my own birthday this near, not because the number - 43. Not because of another year of life finished. I think I was bummed because 42 may have been the best year of my life so far. There's more gray strands in my hair, more wrinkles and freckles and sunspots on my skin, but also more laughter, more people who make my life better, and more wisdom and experience.
There were more events where I took my time and enjoyed the struggle of the miles with friends. I laughed my way through more challenges. I embraced discomfort in a different way.
This time last year I had no idea what 2017 would bring. As I sit and consider 2018, I'm trying to wrap my mind around all of the unknowns that will come. This time next year, what people and places and activities will I be remembering? What success and mistakes will I be reviewing?
It's a weighty concept, this "out with the old, in with the new." I know my youngest will graduate high school, transitioning my husband and I into the Empty Nest. There will be travel. New races. My first 50 miler. My first marathon in my home state. And these I can map on my calendar. But the majority of the writing in my calendar is still to come. I'm intimidated and excited. And if I'm honest a little afraid.
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