Happy Monday! Here’s a quick bit of motivation for your fresh new week.
As I was wrapping up my run this morning I was tired and hungry and honestly amazed by how drenched in sweat I was despite the cool temps. (Hashtag humidity)
I could easily have stopped right there at 7 miles to eat and rest but wanted very much to start the week with a good, solid ten miles, hungry or not. It just sets the tone for all kinds of productivity and high energy work at home. So I distracted myself thinking of how many things we can endure if we choose to.
Human beings can really endure some stuff!
Just for fun, here is a list of endurance trophies we can earn for ourselves. Most of them are running related, but not all. And as always the running lessons translate beautifully into the rest of life.
In celebration of Boston Marathon registration opening this week, I made the list exactly 26 items long:
- Hunger or thirst (just imagine that first drink or first bite, it will be so delicious!)
- Boredom (cultivate a strong, flexible, inventive mind. Put your imagination to good use!)
- Copious amounts of sweat
- Wet feet & slippery socks
- Chafing
- Sore muscles
- Sheer exhaustion
- Anger
- Sadness
- Stress
- Distractions (Practice new ways to slow down & focus.)
- Hot hot hot sun like it will kill you
- Rain like it might flood and also drown you
- Loneliness
- Self Doubt (long runs are excellent opportunities to prove yourself wrong about some insecurities.)
- Disappointments (“Sweet isn’t sweet without the sour.”)
- Shock
- Grief (Have you read the Buddhist Mustard Seed parable yet?)
- Tight finances & limited resources (Some of our happiest memories have been made when we were flat broke.)
- Awkward social situations
- Mondays. (Make ’em count!)
- Long drives through Kansas or the Oklahoma Panhandle (I mean probably)
- That awful pleasure-pain of a deep tissue massage
- Waiting for a prayer to be answered (Trust Him, it is worth it.)
- Listening to an ok writer try to tell a story verbally. (See #20.)
- Winter
Speaking of human endurance, when the time is perfect for her I will be so excited for you to read what my sister Angela has to share. She has endured far more than some hard miles in fancy shoes by choice. She is the real deal, and her life proves that endurance is vital and life-giving. We can absolutely survive more than we think we can, and it makes the other side of things so much more beautiful when we make it.
Hang in there, friends, endure it!!
“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing
but to turn it into glory.”
~William Barclay
XOXOXOXO