He was always Smiling!

I didn’t really know John all that well. 

Fact: I have not seen him in over 21 years. 

He was a year or two ahead of me in High School. 

I remember he was always smiling. 

I was reminded this morning that he dated one of my ex-girlfriends.  

Also this morning, I had what felt like a lot on my shoulders.  I was a bit nervous; this was to be my first day to attempt running again.  I was tired; didn’t get much sleep last night.  I was not happy; I needed to get a couple of things done before 8:15 AM.  I was unsure about the future; aren’t we all at this point?  I was just not enjoying life.

John passed on, on Saturday.

He has a wife and children from what I’ve been told.  I’m sure he was a loving father and husband, as well as a son, grandson, possibly even an uncle and a cousin.  It is obvious from a friend on Facebook that he will be missed by many more than just his immediate family.  Many people will feel a loss for a long, long time.

The more I contemplate this man and what is left by his departure……I don’t have all that much on my shoulders.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all that knew and cared for John.

…running through my mind…

A little push….

Almost every time that I run alone, I get a thought that I mull over for the short “Keith” time that I have.  If I don’t write those thoughts down pretty quickly after I run, life takes over and I forget not only where I was going with my thoughts, but also what the thought was in the first place.   I immediately wrote this one down and have been mulling it over, ever since.

Many times a comment from a friend or an acquaintance is the impetus for these thoughts.  Two Friday’s ago, an acquaintance from High School posted a quote on her Facebook page that I proceeded to dissect approximately 63 different ways over the 4 hours I have run ever since.  Here’s the quote;

If you’ve never met the devil in the road of life, it’s because you’re both heading in the same direction

If you connect with “the devil”, then leave it.  If not, insert another word that has as strong a meaning as “the devil” does for this person.  (In my opinion, they are all the same type of words, they are all something that truly sucks the life out of you)  Here are some thoughts; evil, hate, terror, the beast, the demon, the wicked, the wrathful, the spiteful, the obscene, destruction, the hellish, the out-of-touch, the hurtful, the offensive, the vile, the corrupt, the ruinous and just plain “the MEAN”.  Substitute your words and re-read the sentence.  Think about it for a bit.

The more I thought about my friend’s statement, the more I agreed with it.  The statement made me feel as though, if I were not experiencing some sort of occasional wicked adversity in my life, then I was quite possibly traveling in the same direction as this nefarious antagonist.  This agrees with me because the times in my life that I have not experienced wicked adversity; I have mostly sat on my hands and lost touch with life – let life pass me by and disconnected from what was really going on around me. 

Two days later I went for a run.  A windy, blustery day for a run.  Leaves had covered anything that did not move.  As I ran and the wind blew, it became obvious – because of these leaves – that I was not running “with” the wind.  The wind seemed to constantly be in my face, as were the leaves and everything else that summer had pasted to the ground.  However, towards the end of my run, the wind did gust from behind and it traveled just a few miles per hour faster than I was running.  I couldn’t hear anything else other than the leaves and wind moving with me. My thoughts went to a place that was of affirmation, acceptance and peace.  It felt like the whole world was moving in unison.  I felt like I was right where I should be.

It was then that I realized, during these times we experience any wicked adversity in our lives, there are those quick moments that make it worth the struggle.  A little push from somewhere – to attest that you are on the right path.

…running through my mind…