An Inspiring Morning

Let me begin this by admitting that, yes, much of today's post has been inspired by the fact that I started reading Eat, Pray, Love this weekend. I know it's cliche and that half the women in America are probably saying this but I sure can relate to the beginning of this woman's story.

This morning, we took our daily walk to the gas station for Gatorade (purple) among other necessities. As usual, we passed the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Our son, Sam, comments "we don't go to church." He's right, we don't. And just like in the book, the reasons for that don't really pertain to this blog. So I'm thinking about this as I'm running and the truth is, in my mind, we go to church every day. Just like the author, I don't really think about God as a single specific entity. I don't even really have a name for her or him or it or that or whatever this God thing is. She worded this so eloquently in the book. I don't dare to even try to accomplish capturing this thought the way that she did with words. If you haven't read the book, you should.

This gets to be a pretty philisophical run for me as I start to think about all the things that this thing called God can be part of. My church is right here, the route that I am running. I don't need the building or the ladies group or the collection plate. I've got the sun, which to me holds so much power and energy that it could be this thing called God all by itself. I've got freedom to choose which direction to go and the choices are endless. I'm seeing this God all around me, in the cool breeze, the Mill Pond, the seventy year old man running on the track. There is such a great selection of cheese at the grocery store. Certainly God must have had a hand in that!

My tendency to be a pessimist creeps in. There is so much negativity in the world, on the news, sometimes even in my own house. Ok, a lot of times in my own house. If this God is so special, why is he/she/it allowing this to happen to me, to us? How am I supposed to believe in any of this nonsense? I'm still not sure that I do.

But here is what I do believe. Life can be really hard. So hard that you want it to just stop. Like when you go on vacation to Florida and your husband calls to tell you that he just quit his job. Like when you go to the Health Risk Assessment at work at they tell you that your body fat is at 30%. Like that point at mile 3 when you could turn and just go home. But if you do that, if you just stop and head home, you will never know what you missed on miles 4, 5, and 6. Maybe there were some kids running a FREE lemonade stand or maybe you missed a Basset Hound laying out in the sun. Or maybe you missed your opportunity for your longest and most accomplished run yet! (Is this the start of a self help book? I have no idea where this is coming from right now.)

Something or someone must intervene at that 3 mile mark. Some force, some push is coming from someWHERE that makes you choose to turn away from home and see what else you can find. If this is called God, then AMEN. I didn't need an old stone building to get there. I just needed to take some time to find it.