“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Dr. Wayne Dyer

I had the honor of watching the sunrise this morning, while standing next to another woman in comfortable silence. Neither one of us knew, at the time, that the other has been going through some difficult times. It led to an intersting conversation a short time later, and this is when it hit me – it’s when we reflect upon our moments of difficulty, pity, and despair that we tend to amplify the darkness in the world around us, as well as, within ourselves. But when we choose to take a step back and open up our minds to look at the bigger picture, things begin to change.

Yes, my body aches today. Yes, my muscles are a little sore. But I got to do something amazing yesterday and the scenes that my husband and I took in while hiking at Letchworth State Park, literally, took my breath away. Was it easy to do? Absolutely not. Was it worth it to try? Without a doubt! And, when looking at the bigger picture of life, HOW LUCKY AM I TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO WHAT WE DID AND EXPERIENCE THOSE MOMENTS OF ETHEREAL BLISS???

A friend said something to me the other day about how “everything happens for a reason” and, even though he doesn’t understand the reason why all these things had to happen to me, he didn’t believe I should waste my time trying to figure it all out. But I do. In fact, I already did – because, in my mind, the Universe will continue to send the same message your way, over and over, until you finally learn the lesson beneath.

My lesson is really quite simple, as most lessons probably are – STOP TAKING LIFE FOR GRANTED.

My ability to run is another big part of that. Which is why I am working so hard to heal, in order to try and get that part of my life back.

Regardless of whether that actually happens for me or not (because there’s still so much that we cannot yet foresee) I am grateful to be alive, and have the ability to walk alongside my husband and my friends.

I love the quote by Alan Watts:

“It’s better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”

Now, whether we live a long time or have our time cut short is not really for any of us to say – but we have the power to choose how we spend our time each and every day. And, regardless of when we die or even how long we get to live, our time on this earth is way too short to spend any of it living in a miserable way. And while these lessons in gratitude have definitely been learned the hard way, I can now so clearly see, how lucky I really am to be standing here – how lucky I am to still be ME!

#BeyondTheBoylstonLine