Thank goodness today is day #3 of Gratitude Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa this past Sunday. I didn’t do well during most of the race. It wasn’t anything about training, nutrition, hydration, race day preparation or even my time (which was bad) that makes me say that.
It was my attitude. I started out with a mess up finding the people I was going to run with. It was crowded and I was alone, no running buddies. My legs were sluggish to start. My attitude wasn’t infused with thankfulness or love, it was infused with bother. I was bothered by walkers. I was bothered by gatorade spilling on my hands. I was bothered by music bands along the way. I was bothered by my inability to get my body in gear to keep at the pace I wanted.
Two things changed that. At mile 21 I finally met up with two of the runners I was going to run with. They were both stopped and in great pain. One had to keep walking, the other started running with me. She had injured her knee half-way through and was crying. We kept plugging along for the next 5 miles, running, walking, running as best we could. I was beat, she was even more beat. But she kept going with me. All my bother melted away and I was only thinking about getting us both over the finish line. And we made it together.
The other thing? A young man, 27 years old, had collapsed and died on the 1/2 marathon route. Need I say more? Nothing changes an attitude quicker than realizing the old adage ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. I have lived twice as long as he did. I have had marriages, children, love, travel, pleasure, pain, great friends and family. Many of these things are lost to him now and forever.
It was a sobering reminder that my attitude, as long as I am alive, should continually strive to be at, or move towards gratitude, thankfulness and love.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Frank A. Clark, 1911-1991, American Pastor and Aphorist
