Lessons from running

To those of you who are not runners, it may sound crazy when I say, "I LOVE running!"  Yes, I do often lay in my bed at night dreaming of my next day's run; and when I want a free minute to myself, I run.  So, the funny thing about running is that even as much as I love it, there are still days when I run and it feels like I've never run a day before in my life!  Why is that?  I can feel it from the first step I take, whether it will be a run like that, or a run where I could go on for hours and never tire.  Well, my last run was one of those "I feel like I've never run before" kind of runs.  I'd keep finding a landmark ahead and tell myself, "you can go that much further" and then when I'd get there, I'd find another marker to push myself to.  But I got to thinking as I pounded the pavement home-really, parenting is a lot like running.  Some days (few days around here) pass in a flash.  You look back on them and think, "Wow!  I'm starting to get this parenting thing down."  Then you get a day when you feel like a total failure and you wonder if you are ruining your children.  Often, you know it is going to be one of those days from the moment everyone wakes up.  The whining and tears begin even before the kids exit their beds.  On those days, you have to look ahead and say to yourself, "I can make it till 10am", and then "to lunch time."  Then when lunch passes, you say to yourself, "I can get to dinner" and finally, "I can make it to bedtime."  But somehow, we make it through.  I guess it's like that with everything.  Think about a tough pregnancy, when you literally thought you'd never make it to the delivery, and somehow, you take it one step at a time, until you arrive at your goal, holding that precious bundle in your arms.   Or those last weeks of the semester when you were in college.  Boy, I threatened to quit probably every day during those tough times.  But, magically, you get through one final at a time, and then, you arrive.  Maybe life is meant to be looked at from the smaller perspective.  When we try to conquer it all, it is too overwhelming, but when we break it down, we really can "eat the elephant one bite at a time." 
I'll admit that I often wake up feeling like I cannot handle the day ahead of me.  Sometimes, it is overbooked.  Other days, it is a blank slate, with nothing planned to fill our time.  Either way, tomorrow, I'm going to conquer it-one step at a time.  How about you?