Perfect Timing

I set out on a run this morning, pre sunrise.  I was doing this shorter loop on my own for the first time and truth be told, I wasn’t exactly sure which way I was going.  I knew where the run started and ended and hoped if I could figure out the stuff in between and find my way, I’d be running over the bridge across the creek just as the sun was rising.  I loved this particular part of this loop on this run,  I always say I feel like I’m on this beautiful  summer beach vacation in this picture perfect New England town and forget how cold it is for just a few moments as I’m running down the hill towards the beach.

I parked my car at the beach, the sky was purple and pink, and right then I was grateful I didn’t wait for the sun to rise fully in the sky  because this sky was its own unique spectacular.  

I started running and came to a hill I’ve grown to love and know well.  It has a deceiving incline as it winds its way along the hillside.  I would never have known its challenge, the intensity of the incline if I hadn’t run it myself.  I thought today as I ran this hill how much I loved that it didn’t go straight up and look like the challenge it is and I was grateful I had come to know this hill over the past few months for its challenge and how it’s made me better and stronger.  Sometimes I feel like that, an unexpected challenge, but those who take the time to know me, appreciate the intensity of my incline and know, like I’ve come to know that hill, its all good.  And as I reached the top of that hill today, I loved myself just a little more for being so much like that hill.  

Usually when I run the shorter mileage on this particular route, I turn around at the top of the hill and run back the same way I came.  But today, I wanted to end my run coming over a particular bridge at a particular moment.  I’d run the route before but often caught up in the moment and conversation, I hadn’t paid very close attention to where we were running after running up the hill.  But today, I continued on forward past the hill, not going back, hoping I knew enough to find my way on my own in the dawn of day.  I turned down the wrong road a few times, but quickly corrected my mistake each time.  I got a little lost and had to stop and look around to figure out which way to go.   Eventually, following my gut and fragmented visual memory, I found my way to complete the loop.  And my timing was perfect.  Just as I ran over the bridge on this cloudy gray winter morning, the sun was rising.  A new day, so close to the new year and it was perfect.  

I ran up to the beach and stood there for a few moments with my eyes closed, grateful for the perfection of my timing this morning.  Even though I made a few wrong turns and got a little lost, my timing was still perfect.  So maybe that’s okay in life too.  Maybe the mistakes, the wrong turns, getting lost is okay because the timing of the journey is always perfect no matter how I mess it up along the way.  Maybe the only thing we have to really do is keep moving forward and trust the journey,  instead of turning back.