Day 11: Steady

When beginning a long journey, steady is more important than speed. Last Christmas one of my Facebook friends issued a challenge to run or walk 80 miles during Advent, as it was approximately 80 miles that Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  I didn't quite make it last year because I got sick about 3 days before Christmas and couldn't finish the journey.  So this year, Dora and I decided to try again.  The advantage we have this year is that we started on time. Last year I didn't know about the challenge until about 4 days into December, but this year we were able to start December 1.  I bring this up in the conversation of steady because I have a tendency during my runs to want to push myself to see what I can do - particularly when I run on the treadmill as I have been doing all week due to the cold and snow, but I need to remind myself that I have a long way to go and I need a steady pace that I can maintain.  During today's run, I found I needed to remind myself over and over that I had to do this again tomorrow so slow and steady was better than rushing it and being sore.

Life is like that too.  When we get overwhelmed, we sometimes want to rush through things.  When I was a senior in high school and overwhelmed with all that entails, a wise woman that I worked with often reminded me to just do one thing at a time and eventually I would make it.

And the wonder of slow and steady is you are able to breath and notice the beauty that is around you.  So this holiday season, I seek to find that steady pace that allows everything to get done while also appreciating the beauty around me.