Often during my runs, especially solo runs, I find myself thinking about how I'm going to describe the run in my blog when I'm done. Sometimes it motivates me to push a little harder or go a little farther. Other times, like today, it helps me to live in the moment and appreciate the experience while I'm still having it. I came up with a single word to describe this evening's run, "spiritualicious", a combination of "spiritual" and "delicious". Short version: I ran 10.1 easy miles starting at 6:40pm at an average 8:48/mi pace. The weather was cool and sunny, a little rain in the middle, fresh air, saw a rainbow. I really enjoyed the run. If you have time, read on for the unabridged version. The day started with me opting out of the planned 7:00am run with Kevin. It was raining pretty hard and we both chose to enjoy sleeping in with our families on this holiday morning instead. I knew Sasha wouldn't approve, but after worrying about that for about 2-3 seconds I crawled back into bed, cuddled up next to Karen under the warm blankets, and went back to sleep.
Karen's family has never been much into visiting cemeteries on Memorial Day, so it hasn't been much of a tradition for us. Today, however, we took our four daughters (9 to 23), two sons (19, 21) couldn't make it, and joined my brother and his two young sons, and my sister and her husband, and my parents for a visit to the Spanish Fork and Springville Evergreen cemeteries. In Spanish Fork we visited the resting places of my children's great great great grandparents, born in South Wales and Scotland, and many descendants down to my dad's parents and some of his siblings. In Springville we visited great great grandparents on my mom's side down to her parents and siblings. We also visited Karen's parents who are buried there. We also saw for the first time the plots my parents recently purchased for themselves. Even though the day was overcast with a little rain at times, our spirits were cheerful as we remembered and celebrated our wonderful family heritages, knowing that this life is just temporary, and that death is just another beginning. After that, we took a brief tour of Springville, showing our children the homes we were raised in, some of the schools we attended, some of our friends homes, etc. I showed my daughters the romantic spot where I was watching the bridge wash out during the floods of 1983. I was talking with Karen's father when Karen came up and joined us. She had spoken at seminary graduation that night and was dressed in an attractive light blue dress with white polka dots. We had worked together the summer before but never dated. That night I decided that would change. I asked her out a couple of weeks later and we were married the next spring.
I had promised my family that we would go out to eat after the cemetery visits. It was lunch time, and after much discussion we finally ended up at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It cost me the equivalent of a pair of running shoes, but it was worth it. It was good food and we had a good time. The "delicious" part of my run comes from the fact that at various times throughout the run I would burp up the delicious tastes of chicken parmigiana, marinara sauce, and ranch dressing. I was worried a little about gastric distress, but that ended up not being a problem, probably partly because I kept the pace pretty easy. It was sunny and cool (not cold) when I started the run around 6:40pm, with a bit of a headwind to start with. It was beautiful. I headed east towards Provo Canyon but when I got to Cascade golf course I decided to head south on Palisade Drive. I eventually went down to 400 South, west to 400 West, north to 1600 North then east back to home. As I was headed west about halfway into the run it was sunny but it started raining pretty steadily. I knew what that meant. There had to be a rainbow. I had to give the rain time to get east of me, but sure enough in a few minutes I looked behind me to the east and there was a beautiful rainbow. That's when the "spiritual" part of my run began. One of my favorite songs, which I've loved since I was a child, is "My Heavenly Father Loves Me". As I looked at the sunny, blue sky in front of me, and the brilliant rainbow behind me, and listened to the birds sing, and looked at the beauty of the world around me I began to sing. Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue, blue sky.
Whenever I feel the rain on my face, or the wind as it rushes by.
Whenever I touch a velvet rose, or walk by our lilac tree.
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me. He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart. I 'll thank him reverently,
For all his creations of which I'm a part. Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.
I then began to sing: I like to look at rainbows whenever there is rain.
And think about the beauty of an earth made clean again.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to live the best I can and live with God again. I'm not sure if the lyrics are right (getting lyrics wrong is one of my specialties) but those are the ones I sang.
Some other thoughts crossed my mind (a little Paulosophizing). I realized the brilliant rainbow required two things: sun and rain. We tend to prefer the sunny days over the rainy days, and easy times over the hard times in our lives. Rain (pain, sorrow, illness, injury, challenge, adversity), however, is required for us to experience the brilliant, inspiring beauty of a rainbow. And the rainbow doesn't usually appear until the storm is nearly over, when the sun and clear skies are returning. I also thought briefly of one of my other favorite children's songs, "Give Said the Little Stream", that sings about how streams and rain bring life to plants and flowers, and how we should be like them and bring life and joy to others. I also thought how you can never get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (and there really isn't a pot of gold there anyway) but you can always enjoy the rainbow. I also thought that if someone were standing where I see the end of the rainbow to be, they wouldn't be looking at a pot of gold, or even seeing the brilliantly beautiful rainbow. They would just be standing in the rain getting wet. Sometimes maybe it would help us to change our perspective and look for rainbows instead of complaining about the rain. I also thought of how the end of the rainbow was near my house, and thought of how the real treasure in my life is my family.
I've been trying to "live in the moment" a little better recently, and enjoy life as I'm living it. Today's run was truly a blessing, a tender mercy from the Lord. It was "spiritualicious". | 