Tree People

While adding some pics for ylehsa, I found these, that apparently I had forgotten about since Sunday. Nolan was a very dutiful husband and cheered me on as I ran, and even took pictures of us to prove it! Most of them just look like I'm scowling, but in all fairness, we were running up a hill in this picture, and had been for the last 2 miles. The whole first 3 miles were uphill. With Sarah's faux-cheery face in this pic, I know it's hard to tell that we were working hard...but check out the face of the girl behind us:

I felt a little cheerier on the way back...running downhill, even though I'm sure that's what killed my knees.

Speaking of which...I took today off to heal, following my personal Doctor's sound advice after he examined the knee. I have discovered that when I don't get to run, I feel a little bit angry and really bummed. So to cheer myself up, I had a glass of wine with dinner and baked a blueberry and sour cream coffee cake. Heh. And I'm going to eat it while stretching my muscles out on the rug and trying to keep Milo from stealing pieces. He already stole several artichoke leaves from my dinner plate, ripped them to shreds, and then came back for more before I put my foot down.

We're very blessed in a lot of regards, and although I've been feeling very contemplative and even a little down sometimes lately, overall it all brings me back to feeling thankful. Thankful for our families, thankful for our church and small group, thankful for our friends, thankful for my job and Nolan's schooling, thankful for having lots of time together, and of course thankful for my wonderful partner in life. Even thankful for our car, which sounds like death as it rattles along Lincoln in the morning, getting us to work. One of these days it's going to just blow us to bits, and you can remember that I wrote this.

My high school English teacher once called my class a bunch of "tree people". Meaning, we were interested in the grades, but not what we were actually learning. We were examining the trees but had no idea we were in a forest. Lately I have felt like a tree person. I get very focused on living in the present...which is typically sold as a good thing, but in reality I hone in on what I am doing so much that I can't step back and breathe, and then it makes me feel frustrated and stifled. Sometimes I feel stifled just being in this city, but then I have to step back and realize what an amazing opportunity it is to be here, doing what we're doing, right now. And I have to drop the details and appreciate my life on a larger scale. I guess I'm a tree-hugger in the worst possible sense. Time to check out the forest.

I've decided that I need to keep working on my book. Maybe someday I'll post bits and pieces in here, but for now it's one of my only creative outlets, and I've felt a little withered without one. So for now, bonne nuit!