Saturday I accomplished a goal that I set in April. With the help and support of my marvelous family and friends I was able to attain the title of half marathoner. As I literally approached the finished line of my six month journey I was overcome with so many emotions that I couldn't exactly process them all. In fact I am still process them.
My pillars, Shomari and the kids, are screaming and smiling with great pride on their faces from one side. My team mates and training partners are encouraging & cheering from the other side. I'm hand in hand with a lady I now consider a dear friend and mentor (she's one of the reasons I can now call myself a 'runner' on so many levels.)
Then in front of me - yards from the finish line, my finish line there lies another women. A woman that I have never seen before, yet I instantly feel a closeness to her, the same closeness I feel with my mentor, my teammates, & the thousands of other women running toward their finish line on that perfect Saturday morning. This woman was only yards from her finish line. As we approach her, medics are frantically trying to save her. As I'm forced to drop my dear friend's hand to run around the lady on the pavement and I'm flooded with emotions.
I am feeling joy, excitement, fulfillment & liberation yet I'm sadden, humbled, and mostly I'm convicted. I am smacked hard by my ungratefulness. I am feeling absolutely stupendous but brokenhearted by the scene of Lynn. Lynn was her name. She was a mother, a wife, a friend, and a champion on so many levels.
On Sunday, during my challenge/church group meeting I received an email explaining just how wonderful Lynn was and reporting the worst. Lynn didn't survive, she didn't cross the finish line of the Nashville's Women Only Marathon but I have found great joy in my heart knowing that she was Christian. I read the email message just after being reminded to treat each day as a great gift and not allow the 'little' things to interfere with life.
I was convicted on Saturday and He has been working on my heart and spirit ever since. He has been reminding me just how blessed I am. I believe that He speaks to us through His word and through His people and over the past few days His message has been crystal clear. "Stop whining and live life with a grateful and appreciative heart!"
I was talking to a very good friend yesterday when she causally mentions that the doctors think that she may have had a mini stroke. At that moment I'm taken back to the finish line, I'm taken back to my group meeting on Sunday night, I'm taken back to losing my father so suddenly and I'm reminded yet again (for the third time in three days) that life is like a fleeting moment and that I can't continue to waste it with complaints and worries. That friend and many other friends and family are very important to me. My thoughts, as I teared up on the phone with her, were have I told her how grateful I am to have her in my life. Is there someone who doesn't know just what they mean to me? I paused in that store and I gave thanks for each of my friends and family members (past, present, & future).
It is always time to give thanks. We should always be praising God, because God is always blessing us. God's blessings do rain down on us every day, in every way. We only have to hold the hand of one we love, or watch a child at play on the sidewalk, or lift a juicy apple to our lips to know that. We only have to take a breath to know it is time to give thanks.
So I am sending this to thank you. If you are reading this it is because you are important to me and I am indebted to you in some way. It's because you have impacted my life in some pivotal way. Some of you may be wondering why did she send this to me?! What have I done to impact her life? I will simply answer that with...just know that you have. Each of you have helped make me the Shavon I am today. You've either been a role model, teacher, friend, hero, comforter, inspiration, prayer worrier, shoulder, or a spark of peace in a dark moment. It maybe a note you wrote on my essay in class years ago. It may have been advice given at your kitchen counter. It may have been as simple as a few words that help me take the next step when I wanted to just stop. Or maybe it was just your actions! You may have known the impact or maybe you had no clue what you did at that moment meant so much to me (maybe at that moment I had no clue either), but regardless I want to say thank you. I want to say that I appreciate you and most importantly I love you.
My father is so good to me. He is generous beyond measure, so I cannot count high enough to itemize my blessings. If I have never told you thank you or if I have told you a million times...this email is simply to say thank you for being a blessing in my life.
