Completely Unattainable

I've had a very successful and happy childhood.  My parents made sure I was able to try any sport I was interested in, from soccer to softball (where a rogue bat landed in my stomach) to lacrosse.  All along the way I danced.  The most amazing feeling I've ever had, to this day, is the feeling of slipping on my tap shoes and the anticipation of hearing the simple noise that comes with walking across the floor in preparation to tap.  I never made it to Julliard but that was never my goal.  I was happy, completely and implicitly happy when I was dancing.  It was never a competition, just a challenge to conquer the next step.  The sports were a secondary test to see if anything ever came a close second.  I found running my junior year of high school all because of a few close friends.  The feeling is completely different but the accomplishment is the same, I can do it. I can pass mile marker 3, then 4 then 5.

So fabulous me who has figured out just how to make me happy can't seem to figure out how to keep someone who makes me happy.  It's as though I don't allow the outside to come help add the cheer and smile I know I can instantly produce.  Is it lack of trust?  Is it fear of failure? Is it the inability to know what will happen in the future?  I know when I run, it may not be one of my best runs, but I did it, me and only me.
I met the man I thought I would marry in high school, turns out I was wrong.  Then I met the man who 'took me from me' and that pretty much sucked the entire life out of me.  Next up a great guy who would never measure up.  Between those two was someone I thought would be my knight in shining armor but it turned out he was just a manipulative deceiver.  As of late, I have finally fixed myself from losing myself  and did meet the man of my dreams; sadly I couldn't be what he needed. Let me be completely honest, I wasn't what he wanted. Here meet the present tense.  I've met someone amazing, there is no pretense, no dramatics, and no chance.

So I wonder, is it me that is completely unattainable as I continue to travel down the path of the nevers, making sure that only I am the one who has control over my happiness.  I'm in control of me all of the time; I want so much and give so little.  It's the fear of losing control and it's what makes me susceptible to lovely small time frames, blips of life that will never continue.  Tonight my thoughts are wandering in the present tense and wonder the what if's but know deep down those what if's are exactly that.

with heat, rain causes a flourish

I've noticed this summer, so far, is exactly what I have been craving!  Long heat filled, sunny days with hardly any rain and just enough of a breeze to gently move my daughter's hair.  Although my grass is brown and I add water in the pool each night, I have been living in a hazy bliss of happiness.  Until about a week ago I remembered the flowers and the vegetables!  The center garden was beginning to droop and the edges on the bee bombs were curling and turning black.  Thankfully I seemed to have remembered in enough time to prevent anything from dying off due to lack of rain.  I have been watering diligently in the evenings as I listen to the crickets and frogs not too far off, waiting for me to finish so they too can cool off.  And, as luck would have it, the flowers look wonderful and both the tomatoes and pumpkins are thriving!
I've realized, just like the flowers need both the rain and heat, I need some rain to counter my own heat.  For far too long I have created my life to suit my needs, I haven't wilted when life became too hot.  Instead I laced up my shoes and ran.  And though thought provoking, this realization has come at an opportune time in my life.  I have stood up for what I want and what I believe I can achieve in life only to realize I was the only one who was sure in the relationship of heat and rain.  Some may say I was unfair, some may say more time should be given.
Historically, I spent six years! SIX (oh my was my head not in the game back then) long years ignoring my needs and wants to appease someone else, all the while waiting  for the life I thought we wanted to begin.  Once I realized this was a fantasy that was never coming true I had to find the courage to move on.
Then came the most difficult part in my adult life thus far, I was free to figure me out.  This proved to be four long and trying, tear-filled (both stressful and happy) accomplished years.  Happily I can say I am well on my way to knowing what I want out of life.  The path I have chosen seems to be mostly on with His path; sometimes I stray but I do seem to always find my way back.  Today, I'm back on the path; but not without leaving a piece of me with someone who doesn't have the strength just yet to follow what's already inside.

idle hands clean

I need time, in one form or another; within that time there are many angles and ticks of the clock.  Whether mentally I need some extra time to think things through, or I just need that extra 8 minutes to make it to work on time...it seems I hardly ever have just idle time.  Tonight I ran for 40 minutes just to give myself some extra time to work though some mental stress.  Sadly (for my brain), my body had other intentions and I felt like I ran one of my better runs in a long time.  By the end of the run I was tired, needing the bathroom and desperately wanting to stretch my feet.  Other than that my thoughts were still jumbling around inside my head, not filing in any particular folder but flying free.

All the way home my mind was running as fast as my feet were earlier and I made the decision to just not think.  Everything happens for a reason and I was figuring since my body told me to run when I wanted to think, and all the way home my mind wouldn't settle on one thought long enough to let it come to fruition, I may as well just let it all go for the night. By the time I was home, I had given up my ambition to think anything further than how I was going to cook my fish (a spray of non-stick cooking spray and garlic).  Since my mind just wouldn't settle, once dinner was done and spelling words with sentences had been made (party like a rock star!) I settled in for the night of random cleaning.  I found my running is better than therapy shirt buried in the bottom of my pajama drawer?! I was able to hang up all the clean clothes and had a load in the dryer before Emma had rinsed the soap out of her hair.

I love my life, I love how I spend it when I've got just me time and tonight, the one thing I have realized is just how little time I have to myself and that although I have thoroughly enjoyed myself tonight with the mindless racing of my brain and the sheer happiness I felt as I hung up clothes and folded a shirt, one at a time, I do not feel complete without sharing that time with someone who understands me.  The me that is happy, the me that is sad, that someone who knows what my facial expressions mean as I am making them.  Tonight, I will fall asleep without the 'sweet dreams' as I give time for someone who didn't ask for it, but I could see it in the eyes.

runner in training

Emma and I had an impromptu home day on Monday.  Since the weather has been so nice out, i have been running outside.  Once we had taken care of all morning chores and did sufficient relaxing, I decided to go for a run and push Emma in the stroller.  Yes, i know she is 4 1/2, but 3 miles for me is huge let alone Emma.  
Dressed in our running gear with the music ready to go, we head out for a run.  It was hard, i never ran and pushed a stroller before and Emma was so happy to feel her having the wind blowing in her face.  Once she was bored of it, she wanted to run with me.  After about 30 seconds of running we stopped, took a break and found some nice rocks....did another run, stopped again played some pooh sticks in the stream...ran again...stopped, pet the horses and ran one last time.  All said and done I ran over 3 miles, but it took us over an hour.  So my run turned into a nice afternoon workout.
After religion class last night, on our way home Emma asked me where i was going and I told
her the gym to run. She tells me she wants to run again because her arms
and legs are not as skinny as when she woke up from her nap (the other day)
meaning Tuesday when i picked her up from school...   we had this long conversation about how she had noticed when she woke up from nap, her arms and legs were 'much skinnier' than when she lay down to take her nap. I asked Emma why she thought that was and she said it was from all the running she did on our home day silly.  I mean what was i thinking????
Anyway...long story short, Emma had asked me when we could run again and see the horses since the horses were out on our run. So apparently, I now have a new running partner (and a stroller and a few carrots and apples to feed the horses) Along the way, we will have some rocks and may play pooh sticks too.