This Is Life: Day 12,638

Memorial Day weekend was 5 tons of awesome stuffed into a 3 day sack. I ate cake and watched 100: Head/Heart/Feet at Running Inside Out's birthday party, ran at Whiting Rd with Sheila (while Eric fat biked/cleared the porta potty of snakes), went SUPing with Alison, saw The May Queen at Geva and ate Pi Craft pizza with Erica, ran at Tryon with Alison and Bob (where we met a Party Poodle), went to the Brighton farmer's market, and ate my weight in chocolate peanut butter brownies at Amber and Greg's Cayuga sendoff party and strawberry shortcake/poundcake at Chris' BBQ (as I read this back, I am thinking I should probably have dessert remorse. Apparently I am tapering by eating all the sugar everywhere. But dessert is delicious. And I regret nothing!).

Monday morning, Facebook reminded me that last year on this day Pete and I got engaged. And then I started crying and couldn't stop. (They were probably taper tears, since I only ran 10 miles on Saturday instead of like 20). I just kept thinking about how lucky I am. That out of all the trailheads in all the world, we happened to meet at the same one at the same time. That so much of my life has been changed by simply running next to people, saying hi, trading stories and then becoming the best of adventure friends, living together and/or getting married. That here I am, just an ordinary carbon based lifeform, somehow living this ridiculously privileged Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory life.

I suddenly felt very sad. That Pete is not here to share in all my adventures this year. But more so because I kept thinking what if I had never met him, or all of you? That would be true sadness. Because then I never would have figured it out. The whole point of everything:

Be Alive. Together.

Be alive. Use your aliveness up. All of it. Go places, do things, meet people. Be kind. Be silly. Be awesome. Be together. Through happy times and sad times, successes and failures, support and encourage each other. Make each other's lives better.

Why else are we here if not for that?

Lyric of the moment: "The joy is not the same without the pain..." ~Badly Drawn Boy "Something to Talk About" (I feel like this is the most accurate explanation of long distance running. And life).