How many times will we rise again? How many times are we reborn? How many second chances do we ever actually get?
Basing it arbitrarily on how many Resurrection Run blog posts I’ve written (here from 2010 — 2009 — 2008 and 2007, in which I blog about a novel new toy, the iPod nano), to the first and second questions I’d answer, At least four times. Five if you include this one right here.
Since the grammarians AND the mathematicians will both gang up on me if I say that we also get five second chances, I will answer instead: Although we get just one second chance, we do also get a third, fourth and fifth chance.
Today I ran another 2.5 miles around my Sunnyside Loop. I went quite slowly, even though I was accompanied by my neighbor and 2012 Green Mountain Relay teammate MPK. She was wearing a hot pink long sleeved running jersey, a black running skirt, black arglye socks, and her pink and black sneaks. I can’t make this shit up (I also can’t help but being tickled by her self-aware perkiness). I wore the same thing I ran in yesterday, since I barely broke a sweat and even if I did so what. I was gnarly, she was pretty; together we evened out to normal.
Here’s my thought this year about being reborn, and using my sixth chance in life and in running: Every morning is a little resurrection. It’s a resurrection of hope, of self, of the opportunities to be helpful to someone else. Every day we wake up to the potential to transform ourselves by a lot or by a little. Even though we’re not dead yet, we can become a little bit more alive each day by taking small steps, making suble positive changes.
It happened to me. After a year of gently nosing the vessel of my life in the right direction, I woke up one day and was like, Wow! I really like the view from here! A better, happier, more loving part of me had been resurrected, and even though I’d only moved nine blocks east, I saw the world from a completely different prespective.
Do you look for daily chances to resurrect the better part of yourself? Do you slowly move your runner self closer to an athletic ideal? What does your world look like when you look at it with brand-new eyes?
Pigtails Flying 
So glad you are back running again, and enjoying your life to the fullest. Appreciating what you have is one of life’s great secrets to happiness.
Oddly, enjoying my life to the fullest means sometimes not doing anything at all. Puttering, it’s a miracle.
Ah! You too love to putz. I knew when I met you we shared a kinship. 🙂
Not sure about daily, but I’m trying to move my runner self closer to an athletic ideal. Sometimes though it feels like I’m trying to turn around the Titanic.
I know exactly what you are saying, Ewen! Party of me suspects I may never run another marathon again, which feels makes me both nauseous and exhilirated.
TK, glad to hear you are enjoying the new view. And you are only a few months removed from a half-marathon PR.
I adore your blog! I randomly stumbled upon you when trying to google any information on if the BAA 5k was hilly or not. ha!
I can’t call myself a runner yet. I started with the couch 2 5k app back in September. I had never run before then. I ran my first 5k in March, then my second a few weeks later, and my third is coming up April 15th! (The BAA 5k in Boston).
Anyhow, I wanted to leave you some type of comment as I’ve found myself poking around your blog into your runs from years past… the NYC Marathon among them.
Best,
Nikki
Nikki, thank you! This comment gave me a smile today, which was a tough day. Thank you so much for reading my blog. PLease come back and comment some more with notes on your own running.
I look for a chance to bury my better self in a deep, dark hole.