Perspective

Has anyone else noticed that it's much harder to run on a treadmill than outdoors?  Maybe it's just me, but the difference between my run on Friday and yesterday was like night and day!!  Yes, the sunshine and great weather helped on Friday and the Browns game I was watching while I was on the treadmill yesterday did not help!!  Without the treadmill I probably change my pace slightly throughout the run, so the treadmill forces me to run at the same speed all the time forcing me to put more effort into it.  There's probably good and bad things about that!
  
It's also amazing what the change from 2010 to 2011 can do.  It feels more like the difficult times from last year are really behind me, although I wonder if the sadness will ever really go away.  In his sermon yesterday, our pastor spoke about the end of the novel "Nicholas Nickleby" written by Charles Dicken.  At the end of the book a toast is made that essentially says that the only thing certain about life is that there will be difficult times and that to expect anything different is futile.  Happiness should be seen as a gift and that the best we can all do is to make sure that we work to help others be happy.  I have to agree.

So for me, 2011 is about helping others while I am helping myself become a happier person.  I know that to deal with difficult situations I have to be doing something and training for the marathon will be my "something" for the first part of the year.  We're also working on opening our Wayside Green Kitchen to the public and I'm so excited for that to start to take off!!  Many good things on the horizon!!