Lessons from children

Happy Thanksgiving!
Well, yes, it's late, but that's how holidays go in my family some times. I spent the weekend at my parents' house having fun, doing a whole bunch of nuthin', and playing with the nieces.

Natty's a very grownup 12 yrs old now, and hearing her talk while sounding more and more like an adult is scary sometimes. It's interesting to get her point of view on things...when she's not being a "tween." Georgia's in first grade, a reader now of all things. I think she's finally warming up to school. Charlotte....well, she's four. She's the youngest...the tease in some ways, the ball of energy, the observant one who manages to say the "darndest things," if you know what I mean.

Two weeks ago I completed my second marathon, in Richmond. It was not the race I'd envisioned it would be. Rather, it was a slog fest. High temperatures, soaring humidity, and a bout of asthma that hasn't bothered me for years all conspired to give me the "unplanned" race of the year. I finished a full 1:05 beyond my goal, BUT, I was on my feet and relatively healthy - even counting the massive blister on my right pinky toe. According to several accounts, over 1,000 people who started the race that day didn't even finish. So, all in all...I did ok.

The girls and their parents, plust my parents, all drove down and spectated. We also celebrated my birthday...race day = birthday this year. They got to take home a white kitten (yup, it's deaf), and I got to eat steak for dinner.

So, this weekend, I'm getting ready to go out for a run on Friday morning. Tights, long sleeves, hat, gloves....I'm ready to go. Charlotte inquires.... "Why's Aunt Sara going running AGAIN??" Great.... how do you explain the need to get out and burn some calories, feel the cold, and get that tired/sweaty feeling in you so that you can truly embrace the wonder of Dad's pancakes? "I've got a race next week, and I've got to practice." She thinks about that for a bit... then, "Will this race take you as long as the LAST one we watched?" Ummm..... NO. Nope, not nearly as long (I hope). I explain to her that my upcoming 10k should take me about as long as 2 Blue's Clues episodes. And...that was that.

Later, we finished raking and blowing the leaves into a big pile for the first part of the 2nd annual "Wienie roast" that my dad has decreed will be held each year. Take one dad with an active inner child, give him a leaf blower, a rake, and a bunch of wood, and you get the situation at his house last weekend. Once the leaves were all piled up, kids were let loose on them. His yard sits lower than the sidewalk, with the "hill" between them short and steep. So, at the top of the hill, stands Charlotte...bold and rarin' to go (short, but bold). At the top of her lungs she counts down from 5.... and ends with "BLASTOFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!" as she hurls herself down the hill, across the yard and launches into the pile of leaves. That kid can run! I mean it. Both her feet are off the ground at the same time, her little tiny feet kick back nearly to her tiny little butt, her hair streams out behind her...arms pump....and she flies. There's just no tomorrow for her when she's running like that.

What does a precocious four-year-old child teach me? To run for the fun of it....to "blast off" at the start of races.... to get both feet off the ground and feel the wind in my hair. And, just a little... to admit to being a tiny bit jealous at her ability to run with such natural grace.