Running, Peace, Boston and My Momma.

I started running competitively in middle school.  Running has always been an outlet for me and even at that young age, I found peace in the sport.  Looking back on all the meets in both track and cross-country, my mom was by far my biggest fan.  She literally blew out her vocal chords cheering on my siblings and I during our sporting events and I will always be grateful for her loving and unconditional support.   Win or lose, my mom was there with a smile on her face at the end of each race.

At some point in time, around the end of my high school career, my mom started running with me.  Maybe you could say that my mom taught me to love and I taught her to run.  We started walking together at first, then jogging and then slowly but surely we began to run.  Looking back and remembering those runs up and down the back-country roads of Indiana makes my heart happy.  We would talk, laugh and even sometimes cry as we dealt with both the happy and the heartbreak in our lives.

Chicago Marathon 2012

Unfortunately I also dealt with a lot of injury and sickness as a result of running.  Over the years I had knee and back injuries as well as chronic bronchitis and sports induced asthma.  Ironically these issues led my mom and I to running our first half marathon.  In the spring of 1996, I was running track for Indiana University and came down with walking pneumonia and was forced to take leave from the team.  I was heartbroken, but was not cleared to continue the grueling three hours of sprint conditioning I had been undertaking.  So my mom, knowing how disappointed I was, came up with the idea of running the Indy Mini, a half marathon held around the Indy 500 every year.  During that race, my mom the runner, was truly born.  She has gone on to run multiple Marathons and had even qualified to run Boston this year.  However, at the urging of her family as a result of the toll that the October Chicago Marathon took on her, she didn't.  None the less, I know her heart was there that day and aches for all of her fellow runners and their supporters who were mercilessly attacked during one of the most peaceful sporting events that graces our country.

 

Today President Barack Obama spoke of the resilience of those in Boston by paralleling the runner who fell, only to get back up again and finish the race.  I really related to that, as I am sure many did.  He also spoke of Martin Richard, the eight year old little boy who was killed during the Boston Bombings and his symbolic picture of Peace as seen in the Boston Globe.  So today, my mom's birthday, I decided to run for her, Martin and all those affected by the Boston Bombings.  My mom is known in Placitas as "Our Lady of the open road" because she waves to all those she passes.  This inspired me to greet everyone who passed me tonight with a salutation of my own, a peace sign.  With Martin and my mom in my heart I smiled and said "Peace" to each and every car that went by. 

As I said, I may have taught my mom to run, but she taught me to love.  I believe that the ability I have to love deeply, talk to strangers like friends and even feel their pain like they were my own family, is a gift from my mom.  She carries the weight of the world on her shoulders and has been my own inspirational example of how to get back up when you've been knocked down.  I could have just run for me tonight, but because of my mom I ran for more, I ran for peace, for healing and for love.

I love you momma!  You are a true light in the lives of everyone you know... and even those you don't!

Happy Birthday!

The Boston Attack through the eyes of a child.

Tonight as we were tucking our littles into bed, they talked about being scared by the attack today during the Boston Marathon.  As I heard the somewhat erie sound of planes frequently flying overhead (having been diverted from flying over Seattle's airspace), I too felt uneasy and could only imagine how my children saw these events.  It was then that my Catholic upbringing kicked into high gear and we calmed them the best we could and said our prayers.  After Jerry and I tucked in Brayden and said good-night, we went into the girls room.  I could tell that my wise old Sage was thinking overtime about the events today in Boston.  We told her the best thing to do was to pray tonight for all those affected and then tomorrow, simply spread good into the world.  Kill evil with love.  Find that lonely classmate and talk to them, be extra kind, be the good that is needed right now, all in honor of the victims of this horrendous attack.

Sage and Saxton both asked to pray the Our Father one more time, and as we finished the prayer I emphasized the line, "deliver us from evil."  It is truly senseless evil that was behind these attacks today and trying to explain such horrors to children is very difficult.  Tonight I concurred that unfortunatly things like this do happen, sadly almost everyday, around the world despicable atrocities take place.  However, we can't live in fear, nor turn our backs.  Instead we need to fight back with peaceful and loving acts.  This might sound utopian and idealistic, but as a parent, it is all I can hope for.  The alternative after all, the thought that things are just going to get worse, that this is our new reality and that life is hopeless, isn't an option.  If we allow it to be, then those who commit these acts have won.

Our hearts and prayers are with all those affected today by the Boston attack.  The whole country truly is behind the city of Boston, the marathon runners and their families.