Lost in a Fog

There's been a lot of morning fog around here lately, a weather condition not anticipated around this time of year. But thank heavens for small favors--it's not been raining at least.

There's been a lot of morning dark around here too. That could have been anticipated, but, as they say, de-nial is more than a river in Egypt. Nevertheless, I'm chagrined to be encountering increasing amounts of darkness in the a.m.

Since my fall on June 7, precipitated by stumbling over a garbage can lid in the pre-dawn hours, I've tried to stick to running when I can see. Novel concept, no? But lately I've been hedging. Running up streets that are lit, watching my feet carefully, as if they were nervous ferrets that might startle and dart off from under me (do ferrets dart?). I've developed a hitherto unspoken guideline: If the sun will come up within 30 minutes of my leaving the house, I can go. Works OK now, when the sun is rising slightly before 7:00. But I can see it ain't going to work for long.

Running on lit streets is fine on the weekend, but large machines called cars make safety an issue on other days. Tripping over a garbage can lid is one thing; tripping over a Cadillac Escalade would be quite another.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I was thinking earlier today that going through life reacting to everyone and everything I see and making instant judgments -- good, bad, stupid, ugly, pretty, useless, very cool, etc. -- is time consuming and at times exhausting. Just for tomorrow I intend to work at suspending this activity and just acknowledge that everyone and everything are part of this great mystery of existence. Given the choice of being alive amidst all that surrounds me or not, I'd have to go with the former. That being the case, tomorrow not only would I like to be able to suspend my judging, I'd like to take time express my gratitude for the gift of being part of everyone and everything, also known as the world. After all, if you're not in this world, you're probably not breathing, and if you're not breathing, it's a sure thing you're not running. (There. This IS a running post.)

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