Perspective

It's been hard for me to come up with something to write about this week.  My emotions have been all over the map for various reasons that I do not want to get into.  Maybe it's coming down off of the 100-miler, but maybe it's due to other things in my life as well.  I really don't have much to complain about.  I have a great life with a great job and great friends, and the two sweetest fluffy dogs a girl could wish for (even if Artemis rolled in something stinky on our dogwalk Friday evening).

I think the thing that brings things all into perspective for me is my running.  It's now Fall, and you can feel it in the air.  You can see the change in seasons in the way the light filters through the colored leaves on the trail, making you feel as if you are walking through one of the most beautiful stained-glass cathedrals of Europe.

I went on the most beautiful, inspiring run above Park City this past week, up to Pinebrook.  There's a bench on an overlook made out of a ski lift chair.  I didn't really feel like running when I started out ~ I felt more like crying.  But I spent some time on that bench just reflecting on my life.  And it made me feel so at peace.  After what some might call a meditation, I was able to run four more miles with the dogs.  Through the colored leaves and the golden sunlight of Autumn.

Several days later I went up to the Uintas with my friend Sue, and again with the dogs.  We ran on one of our favorite trails.  We ran through spruce forests and past mountain lakes, past rocky, magnificent cliff bands that towered over us and through grasses turned golden and dotted with blue flowers.  Mount Timpanogos peaked around a corner to grace our view as we ran through a high mountain meadow.  It was the kind of run that makes you feel like a hero.  It was the kind of day with a good friend and dogs that makes you wonder why you worry about all those other little things in life. 

This is the season that brings things into perspective ~ Fall.