Run Time: 57:03 + 2-minute kick
With no local knowledge, I ran first on neighborhood sidewalks. I left my daughter’s house on Smugglers Lane, headed east on Eaton, then south on St Paul, then east on Pinecrest, and then turned around when my time was halfway done. The homes were old and beautiful. Lawns were well-tended. Halloween decorations were up.
Most importantly, I was reunited that morning with my Sophie. She had moved away to Rochester. It had been two months since we parted, and my broken heart had been slowly emptying, and it was filled again with one hug. My wife arrived first Friday afternoon, driving from Grand Rapids, and I flew in from Minneapolis lat that night. In the morning, I was last in bed, and Sophie saw my shoes by the couch. She remembered my shoes.
It was as if we had never parted. We picked right up where we left off. You wonder how a 1-year-old processes time and place. 2 months was nearly 10% of her life at this point. She has navigated moving to a new house and a new neighborhood, going to daycare for the first time, separating from familiar cohabitants, all while growing and expanding vocabulary and creating neural pathways.
She is a mischief-maker extraordinaire. If there is something in the vicinity that she cannot have, she will create a diversion to attract your attention, and within seconds she is climbing onto something to get the something she cannot have, smiling all the while. Sometimes she gets it, and she will smile at you and wait to be discovered, so that she can squeal with delight in an attempt to escape. Life is going to be a game to this one.
This is one reason why I run – to stay healthy, to live long, to witness my kids and my grandkids embrace the world. I know that I will leave the world a better place. I see the evidence every day.
Don't Make It a Habit. Make It a Ritual. 