Love Is What Matters

Today, I am lying in the hammock and reflecting on the past two days...

Emma and I just spent some time reading outside in gorgeous weather. This school year, she and I have been reading, "Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl". There is so, so much life in this book. I am moved by this life. The "realness" of her writing puts me, as the reader, right next to her in the annex.

I wish I could say I have put all my thoughts together after reading this book, but there is so much that comes to mind when reading an entry to her diary, so I will only share some of my scattered thoughts. Like today, one of the passages we read reflected a day, weather wise, that was probably similar to this day, however Anne didn't have the frivolity of such leisure time. She was not free.

Also, reading this book, I am presented with the dichotomy of  Anne's angst/imprisonment, and the freedom that we experience as modern Americans.
One of the more remarkable things about Anne was at her age, she is more educated than I will ever be.
There is so much richness to this story she tells, yet she did not live to tell her story. Her story is a short story, on which I have spent some time cogitating and having an ongoing "discussion" with God.
...................................

Yesterday, after the half marathon, my husband graciously made the "Breakfast of Champions" with the help of my sister-in-law Patty, and my mother-in-law Judie.

Fellow half-marathoners Heidi and Maricel joined me and our respective fan clubs for breakfast.

 I'm hoping the pictures of folks spread throughout the house will tell the story, but what they won't say is that this race is a reminder of my pre-forty experience of self evaluation and self reflection that lead me to the conclusion that my life is to be about gratitude, foremost, to God and to all the magnificent gifts He gives me each and every day.

At one moment as I sat amongst my friends chatting about this and that, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for these friends being the love and support that is here for me, big race or not. My eyes got a bit teary, and I noticed the song that was playing the the background. It was a Carrie Underwood song (Yes, sounds so "pop" of me) entitled, "So Small". The lyrics of the chorus are so true,

"Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
What you've been out there searchin for forever
Is in your hands
Oh, When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Oh it sure makes everything else
Seem so small"