Perspective

One thing I love about running is that after you have been going for a while, and you get really tired, your mind clears of almost every thought and life has a way of coming into focus. Today I really realized how little my problems stack up against my blessings. We have plenty of financial issues right now, and I do my share of worrying about whether we are going to be able to eat the next day. But God has blessed me with an amazing woman as my wife, and she is an even more amazing mother to our son, Elijah. I love spending time with her and Elijah. She is a wonderful godly woman and I value deeply the prayers she prays for me. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and is always making me laugh. Her wit is unparalleled. And I still can't believe how great she looks after having a baby just a couple of months ago. I love the walks that we have together, and I always feel that we do our best problem solving together. She is always supportive of the decisions I make, and helps me get through tough times, even when I am difficult to live with. Not enough good things can be said about her.


Elijah is turning into quite the character. He's smiling a lot now and starting to try his hand at laughter. If only he could appreciate his mother's wit. I'm starting to really appreciate the boy he's becoming.


Anyway, these are the things that I think about while I run. Today I went out during the late afternoon and took my 9 mile route. It was quite hot out, so I took a water bottle and I was glad to have it. But it clouded over a little bit and cooled off as the afternoon waned so I felt comfortable going the longer distance. I ended up running for a little over 80 minutes, a good pace for that length I think. That route takes me through Washington Park which I can't say enough good things about. I am very glad that Denver has dedicated the resources to keeping open spaces like that maintained. The whole family was there last night for a walk, and we all enjoyed the time together. The run today was my first since Saturday actually. I've been opting for long family walks in lieu of easy run days.


This morning I went to Peet's to get writing done on my paper. I've been putting it off for too long and I needed a distraction free (read "no internet") environment. I was there the entire morning and I ended up getting an entire first draft finished up. I still have to make the figures, but now that I know what I want to refer to it should be easier to do that. So I was very happy to get that going. I need to get papers out and ready to go so that I can list them on my CV come job hunt season, and I have been dragging my feet on this one for a while. It feels great to get it started. Tomorrow it's back to work to finish up the workup on the reaction I started yesterday. Should be a productive day!