Thankfulness, Day Three

Song & Stride

The stride is everything.

I should rewind a bit. As a child and a teenager, I liked to run. One day, my knee began to hurt. Badly. I was poked and prodded, x-rayed and otherwise imaged. No discrete cause was ever found. I was told once that if I could ever build up the muscles around my knee, perhaps that would help.

I decided around this time last year that I was going to run again. I missed it. I missed the stride; running is meditation, for me. I decided to use the Couch to 5K program. I did the first few weeks, and had to stop. I started going to my chiropractor regularly again. I rewound, though not to the beginning, and did it a few weeks. I added back in visits for massages. Finally, around the end of August, I returned to it, to finish it. I finished it two weeks ago, just shy of my birthday.

It is, and was, such a gift. Every time I let my legs unfold and go, I'm thankful. I don't enjoy most forms of exercise. Running, though - there's my joy.

And song. The beat that carries me when I run.