My Longest Year

The Perfect Run

Thanksgiving Day dawned a nasty gray in our area.  It was windy, cold, and rainy.  Growing up in New England this was nothing new, but here in the southern states it is usually sunny and to me unseasonably warm. 

After sitting around the breakfast table with H's family for a good portion of the morning, I had been up with T.D. since the birds peeped their eyes open, I couldn't sit and let my breakfast burrito turn to a rock in my stomach.  I had a whole day of eating ahead of me.  I felt like a doughnut. I needed movement.  When the collective group still in their pj's declared, it was naptime I almost screamed.  NAP TIME?  NAPTIME?  It's 10:30 people!  I can't nap if I'm going to be eating all day in this overheated, full of people house!  I need to move!  I looked at H and said, "I'm going for a run.”  My MIL said with wonder, "But it's rainy and cold out there.”  H unsurprised just asked, "Did you bring cold weather stuff?”  Oh yes I did.  I had checked the weather and knew that at some point a run/solitude would be necessary.  I didn't think it would be a mere 12 hours after our arrival but I needed that run.  I didn't care if there was ice on the ground I was getting out there.

"True Colors"

I wonder if there are dreams after you die.  Maybe it depends on where you go – up or down, so to speak.

About a month ago I had a dream.  I was sitting in a hammock with my dad and we were watching the ocean.  I could hear the shush of the waves as they washed over the sand, that sort of hypnotic white noise of the sea.  The hammock creaked softly as we rocked, and my toes traced a little trench in the warm sand beneath me.

Suddenly the hammock stopped swinging and my dad stood up.  He reached for my hand to help me up, and instead of telling him to F--- off (which is what I would have done in real life), I actually took his hand and stood beside him.  He began to walk along the shore, and I followed at his side.

After a while he slowly stopped, staring uncomfortably at his bare feet, burrowing his toes in the sand.  Clearly he wanted to say something.  I watched in silence.