I came across an amazing quote recently: “Something down the road depends on our present stretch of pavement.”
It’s from Beth Moore. She means it in a spiritual context. But for me, running is spiritual. And for us runners, if we’re on the pavement, we’re often training for something. Paige and I are training for the Boston Marathon, which is coming up in less than two weeks. But training isn’t always about running.
Some of us are training to have the energy to parent, or the stamina to stay married. We’re training to better balance stress at work and at home, to reclaim inner peace, or to forge a new identity, something for ourselves.
We’re training to let go of burdens and baggage, to lose the weight, to be lighter on our feet, or to heal a broken heart. We’re training to make some new friends or to find community. We’re training to uncover old dreams, to create new ones, to gain energy and momentum, or to get unstuck.
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We’re training to make a new habit, to replace an old one that no longer suits us, to clear our minds, to remove the fog that mars our vision, or to prepare for an adventure.
The Best Songs to Add to Your Playlist This Month.
We’re training to recover from injury, illness, or addiction, to become stronger for someone we love, to become stronger for ourselves, to become our own warrior, our own advocate, and our very own badass. We’re training to find lost treasure, something we dropped along the way, or simply because it’s the next right thing to do.
Whatever we train for, it’s always for something. Usually it’s something we cannot see or understand yet. Something will be required of us, just around the bend. And it will take all the strength, endurance, flexibility, willingness, faith, and courage we can muster.
But whatever it is, we need to pay attention to our present stretch of pavement.
Kristin Armstrong is a mother, a writer, and a runner. She has written six books, including her latest, The Best Songs to Add to Your Playlist This Month.
