Getting back to normal.........................

Last Thursday we had BIG storms in our little town. Many, many huge trees where lost to winds, that (I think) was confirmed as at least one tornado. Tornadoes just don't hit here, so it was a pretty big news story. I was overwhelmingly sad about all the trees that were lost. About 80% in our main city park. It was also interesting to have to show identification to move about the city streets and get back into town after venturing out. Strange it somehow made us feel important. I guess some people will take any sort of fame that comes their way.

I often talk about gratitude, and being protected, so I have to share our own personal miracle. On all four sides of us neighbors lost (a) large tree(s), and there was fairly major damage two blocks away, and all that we lost was one small tree branch and one of our cherubs gave up their existence (literally lost it's head) to keep us safe. Pretty wondrous! The other cool thing...We were without a phone until last night. Sorry, Alexander Graham Bell, but when the lady from the phone company called me today to see if I were having any problems with the phone, I told her, "Only that it keeps ringing." Took her a minute to get my meaning, but then she laughed and didn't take offense at all.

Yes, the marathon was this past Sunday, and yes, I FINISHED IT! Took me six hours, twenty-one minutes and forty-five seconds (6:21:45), but I did it. Funny, I imagined myself bragging about it more, talking about it more, wanting to share every single detail of it, and I am finding it hard to talk about it at all. The first twenty-four hours all I could do was cry every time I thought about it, or anyone ask me about it (good tears), and now the satisfaction seems to have been in the completion of the goal rather than the re-living of the goal.

Somewhere, in the last couple of miles of the race, a lady passed me on a bike, smiled and said, "keep going, and know that only one in ten thousand people complete a marathon. At the time I was freaking out about meeting the cut off deadline of 6.5 hours and I couldn't revel in the wonderment of that statistic. And I guess, if you consider how many people there are in the world that may not even be that great of a statistic, but it is mine now, and just like all the other growth that I have achieved, no one can ever take it away from me. I am very proud of my accomplishment, and can't wait to see what I do next.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Yippee!