Snow Flurries and Leaf Flurries

It is a Sunday, the last Sunday in October, and day by day Bill Lewis has continued to regain his strength.  Yesterday we visited  him and he was resting, watching a basketball game with his brother; we brought him a print-out of all the comments that have been posted on Facebook and it must surely be an amazing feeling to know that so many in the community care about him and are praying for his full recovery.  If Bill experienced visions of angels in flowing robes or golden cities, he has not said so.  Still, it is not often that a man can be told that, like Lazarus, he has been revived from the dead and has another chance.

If it were me, I think I might find myself sitting for some time in a shaft of sunlight beneath a stained-glass window in some holy place.  Or I might spend many of my days as I did this morning, walking down the road in the late October brilliance, marveling at the chiaroscuro patterns made by swiftly-moving clouds, the leaves golden and brilliant orange, the wind cutting sharp and cold - a harbinger of the season to come.  I noticed that there was a light splatter of moisture on my sunglasses, and as I gazed around I saw with surprise that these were snow flurries - I could see them swirling around, mixed with the falling leaves.  What a joy it was to walk in this flurry of snow and leaves all mixed together!

Acts of kindness are more important than races, but still I feel a little disappointed that I reached a certain relative peak of fitness in mid-October and had to cancel running a half marathon for which I had trained for two months.  But now, here among this season of swift changes, I am determined to begin working toward another goal, and then another.  There is a good half marathon in Morehead City on March 3, and there are some shorter races before then.  It is time to shake off the stiffness in my legs of so many days driving back and forth to the Veterans Hospital and to wake up my legs again.  So yesterday I included some short hill sprints in my run, and in the week ahead I will begin running some tempo miles, climbing those long hills, and building mileage again.

Training never ends; it just needs to be re-focused from time to time.