So I read on Smooth's blog that we are 15 weeks from Boston. Woops. Better get movin. I've been thinking a lot lately about how some of the toughest people I know are foreingers. My husband, a foreigner himself, often likes to point out how weak we American's are; emotionally crippled, lazy, with little endurance for discomfort (maybe he's just talking about me :) But I think it's true in some ways. We're made tough; to work, to toil for our bread, and withstand famine when there is none. When we don't find enough challenge in our lives, we invent ways to use up the extra energy we've needed for millennia to survive--and particularly in cushy middle America. We've all but lost the basic challenge of survival. Either that, or we have striven for so long to find the way to expend the least amount/reserve the most amount of energy needed to stay alive that we've just become lazy. But what I need to remind myself is that I am made to do hard things, I can withstand hard things, I can overcome hard things--physical, mental, & emotional. I have learned a lot of patience in the past 5 years; a kind of emotional self control and discipline I lacked for so long. I don't think I'll ever be as calm about living as some of the tough people I admire so much, but I'm getting there. Running has helped me get there. | 