Running not Over

I've started to run again. It seems to be a seasonal thing. Not calendar seasons, but personal ones. You have to enjoy running to be out there right now in near freezing temperatures especially after working outside all day in that coldness.

While running, I've had quite a few close calls with cars. Usually, it is there fault for not paying attention and probably slightly related to the incredible rate of speed at which I am traveling. Thankfully, if I am paying attention to people not paying attention, it usually negates any potential problems. Tonight, I take responsibility. At a very young age, I learned to look both ways before crossing the street. I'm sorry car. I'll do better.

Pictured: Vintage me running a 5K race, probably breaking the speed limit.

leaves.

People are always doing so much artsy stuff with leaves this time of the year. Using them as great analogies about things changing, posting pictures of leaves in mass quantities in all their radiant glory, doing really cool art projects with the leaves themselves, the list goes on. Me? Right now, my main experience with leaves is that I rake them up in a nonstop battle against nature. In fact, my job this time of year is less to wash cars and more to wage war against the elements.

Multiple times I have found myself raking fallen leaves in near freezing temperatures before the sun has even decided to rise. I mean the previous statement literally and figuratively. I've physically found myself doing that as required by my boss. It is a very real reality I face each day I go to work that more leaves will have replaced the ones I collected and my boss will still want the lot to be kept clean.

These times of early morning raking have also helped me find myself on a more personal level. I recall one time in particular when it was pouring down rain and I had yet to discover where the rake was stored so I was using a broom to try to sweep wet leaves plastered all over the parking lot. Let me give you some advice, it doesn't work and is a losing battle. At that point, I wasn't at all enjoying the magnificent array of colors leaves can be, analyzing all the great analogies I could concoct about being swept up in the ever changing seasons of life even though I was using a broom. I wasn't even remembering past art projects I've done with leaves or trying to come up with new ones. I was simply feeling sorry for myself and the situation I was in.

Slowly, almost as slowly as my pile of leaves was growing, I realized how much I have to be thankful for. I am blessed with a full time job in a city I love and look, the leaves are brilliant shades of orange and red and I have functioning limbs to be out here sweeping them up! I even thought of a few clever analogies and art projects the leaves could be used for!

Life will be difficult at times. You'll be trying to sweep up wet leaves with a broom in the rain early in the morning. The right appreciation for all you've been given will help ground you in the reality that you have much to be thankful. Leaves are going to fall and need to be dealt with and you might only be equipped with a broom. How we choose to deal with this reality is the only thing that can we can change and conquer.

Back to leaves. I'm always leaving, and never coming back when it comes to this blog. I'll try to do better.

Pictured are leaves still on a tree, an apple tree I picked apples from. Apples that became a delicious pie, but that is perhaps a story for another time.

Poor Pour

Today I was thirsty and at the store, so I decided to treat myself to something other than water. I bought a tasty looking raspberry lemonade. One of my professor assigned some readings that she had one photocopy of outside her office to read. I decided my special drink would make sitting outside her office for an hour reading lengthy technical articles would make things better. After leaving the store, I took one sip of my drink to know what deliciousness awaited me and to motivate me to walk the 30 minutes to her office to have at least an hour of reading, but more importantly, the rest of my drink.

I arrived outside her office and removed my backpack. Instantly, I knew my special drink had left its container and saturated everything in my backpack. Sure enough, after that one sip, I apparently didn't fasten the lid although I believe the lid was designed poorly and it wasn't my fault. My notebook inside my backpack was soaked. My clothes got a bit wet too. Everything reeked of raspberries. It was very sad and frustrating. Not only that, I still had all the reading to do, thirsty and smelling of the juice I only got one sip of.

Some days are like that. Something you look forward to wrecks everything and destroys your notebook. However, if you are going to smell like something you spilled all over everything, raspberry lemonade isn't that terrible.

trust.

While reading a rather dense book for one of my political science classes, I came across a definition of trust that was thought provoking. According to the late Charles Tilly in his book on democracy, "trust consists of placing valued outcome at risk to others' malfeasance, mistakes, or failures." It got me thinking about who I trust and how I show that to them. Maybe it isn't the best definition you've heard, but after reading for hours through material that was not very interesting, something about this simple statement stood out to me. It is worth considering how you choose who you trust and how to you show them that you do so.

I'm Back. Maybe.

It has been quite some time since I last told the world how my day went. I'm not sure why I ever felt like I needed to do so or who even read my ramblings. For the longest time after my rather abrupt blogger death , I mainly felt relief to not feel like I had to blog everyday. Now, I am thinking it is good for me to write.

That being said, who knows exactly how I will feel tomorrow or the day after that. If we are going to be honest, who even knows if I will be around tomorrow or the day after that. It is a fact of life that you never know when it is going to end or if Danny is going to feel like blogging. It is up to you how to deal with those realities.