Live each day with your mind, heart, and soul wide open to the joys, and the possibilities...

Friday night, I got home from work exhausted, after staying at the office a little late to finish things up. I had planned to go out for a run but didn't feel up to it. Still...Molly had waited all day for me, and was her usual little cyclone of irrepressible, and uncontrollable, energy when I walked in the door. So...I reluctantly put on my running shoes, clipped on her leash, and headed out the door.

It was cold...I had dressed light, knowing that I would be cold for the first 10 or 15 minutes but comfortable for the last 20 or so. Once we got out of the development I live in (a sacrifice I gladly make for my children) I saw that it was a spectacularly starry night. I was cold, hungry, and tired, and I had some tightness in my lower legs...but running through the darkness, Molly at my side, the brilliant stars above, the deer silhouetted by ambient moonlight in fields as we passed, I felt a keen sense of peace. I was at peace with my life, at peace with my world, at peace with myself.

Sunday morning came too early, because as usual, Saturday night had come too late. But the sun was shining, and it was Molly's birthday. Knowing that you are only two once, I had planned a special trail run, just for the two of us. The morning was crisp, but no breeze blew through my fleece. Again, we ran, side by side, both of us (apparently) appreciating life, and health, and happiness, and the beauty of the woods, the hills, the rocks, the stream...

And again I felt peace, I knew peace. All was right. All would be all right. All was good.

Life is good, and I choose daily to experience it with wide open eyes, a wide open heart, and a wide open soul.