This morning when I was out walking the dogs, I found a four leaf clover.  This isn't unusual for me.  For whatever reason, I find four leaf clovers all the time.

Still, I started thinking about it after I dropped the dogs off back at the house and went on my run.  

The weather was perfect.  I wore my running shorts but needed my long sleeved technical shirt because it was a bit cool.  The birds were chirping their heads off.  I freaked out some poor bunny rabbit who would frantically run ahead of me alongside the road, crouch down and then hop off again as I got closer and flushed it out of hiding.  There were horses out to pasture.  Instead of doing my walk/run thing, I ran the whole way.  It really was a lovely run.

None of us gets through life unscathed.  I had a brain anuerysm while out on a run more than five years ago.  A good friend of mine also had an aneurysm about a year before I had mine.  We share the same doctor, and he told me recently that our aneurysms were in the exact same locations in our brains.  They fixed me up in a couple of weeks, and I had headaches for six months afterwards.  

Several surgeries later, she is still living with constant pain.  We sing in a chorus together, and I don't think she's managed to stay for an entire rehearsal all year.  She has to bail when the pain gets too bad.  I don't know if she was ever a runner, but I do know that there's no way that she could take it up now even if she wanted to.

I finished my run today feeling strong.  A good run makes me feel alive in ways that few other things can match.  I like being able to push myself to new limits.  

Bodies are fragile things.  I know exactly how lucky I am.

This was a beautiful day for a run.  

It was thirty degrees outside, so that made it just a bit chilly for me.  My blood has gotten thin down here. Still, it could be a lot colder and I got to run under clear blue skies.  I'm far enough along in my Couch to 5K  program that I actually feel like I'm running, even though there are still walk breaks.

I'm so glad I decided not to be slothy.  <---Not a word, but it should be.