National Donut Day and being grateful.

I think it's awesome that National Donut Day and National Running Day fall in the same week...what a wonderful week! After all that running, we certainly deserve our donuts.

I'd actually forgotten this glorious holiday until I finally got to work after a hectic morning...I was quite frazzled but happily surprised when I box of donuts greeted me in the break room! I picked a chocolate one...it was delicious! 

I have a journal sort-of book that I received as a gift called "Q&A a day: 365 Questions * 5 Years * 1,825 Answers." As you can imagine, the journal contains one question every day for five years (you start over at page one on January 1st). Today's question was "What Are You Grateful For?" I actually wrote the answer last night, which was "the ability to run" (later this morning I added "my health"). 

I took a run tonight after a mediocre (and once again, very gray) sort of day...work is tough (any job involving hundreds of teenagers who don't want to talk to you is tough) and I got home and just needed to shake things out. I'm definitely tired after my super-speedy fluke run yesterday, so I took it back to my normal resting pace and just did a couple miles, especially since I'm tapering, as I've been saying. I really felt so much better during this run...I still think a lot during my run but have less control over my thoughts, which is really quite good because naturally my attention shifts away from the stressful ones. Anyways, as if a sign from God, I found myself running towards an older, slightly heavy man with a cane who was standing on a street corner at the end of my run. He gave me a smile, maybe a "hello," and I wished him a good evening as I passed. A few seconds later he called "Have a good run!" as I sped away. Immediately my thoughts shifted to what I had written in my "365 Journal" and how prevalent my thanks for this ability was at that moment. There I was, doing what I love right next to someone who was completely unable to run, even if he wanted to. I sprinted home, so grateful of my abilities and particularly the one to run, which can be taken away in a second. I know I've written about this before, but I don't write about it enough and it's important for everyone to remember--whether it be about running, walking, painting, anything you love. Love your ability and be grateful.