In this race of life, it is okay to stop when necessary <3

I used some found time yesterday to clean off my desk. As part of the process, I gathered all the various post starter ideas that are recorded on the backs of receipts and paper scraps. I copied them all into a new notebook of ideas. 

One of these brief thoughts jumped out at me and has been rising to the top of my thinking so I will share today. 

Around sixth grade, I think, our son John decided he wanted to run the Turkey Trot. This is an annual November race through our downtown and out to one of the local parks. For some reason, Russ was not able to run with him. 

John was old enough that we felt comfortable letting him run with the pack, but not old enough that we didn’t make sure we drove the route. We would pull up to a corner where the runners were passing so we could call out his name and wave to him. 

I remember the confused look on his face as he would hear his name and look over and kind of wave. I am sure he was wondering how on earth we were appearing along the route or was he going in circles. 

At one of the stops we noticed he was trotting along wearing only one shoe. He was holding the thrown tennis shoe under his arm. We hollered for him to stop and put his shoe on. I don’t think he realized that was an option. Kind of like… “Run, Forrest, run.” 

He settled quickly on a curb and reattached the shoe and then took off again. He arrived at the finish line with both feet shod, and collected his ribbon and swag and it was a good day. 

There are so many side thoughts about this, but I think I will settle on the one that is foremost in my thinking. 

As we run this race called life, there are times we need to just stop and get our shoe back on.

Sure we can keep plugging along in our sock feet, carrying that protective piece of footwear, and maybe finish a few minutes quicker.

But maybe we need to just sit down on the curb, slip our foot back in the gear, make sure we double knot the laces and rejoin the masses on the journey. 

Blessings friends. 

You are dearly loved <3