I've been thinking about a very brief moment for two days now.
This past picture-perfect-San-Diego-Friday, I went for a lunch-time run south along the coast to Pacific Beach. With my Ipod blasting, I was running faster than I have run in a while, emboldened by the weather and the song "Chasing Cars" from the band Snow Patrol. I looked up from under the rim of my Nike running hat and I saw her - the sweetest little old lady walking across the street very slowly.
She looked fit, but she was hunched over carrying flowers with a ribbon. As I passed her, things moved in slow motion around me, and I looked at the ribbon on the flowers and it had two words printed on it- "In Memory."
On this beautiful day -- the day of my fantastic run -- this women was walking home, so very alone from her car with these flowers from the memorial service of her friend or special someone. I could not read the name on the ribbon, but from her face, I could see it was someone very important in her life.
I have said before that we're all on our way to a different kind of finish line - and life is like a triathlon: swimming (youth), biking, (middle age - go, go, go) and the marathon (as we get older and start to stumble to the finish line where our families carry us to a table, and we lay down and get rubbed by medical personnel.
When I ran past that sweet little old lady I could feel her loss. When I got home I wished I could go back and give her a hug, though she likely would have whacked me with the flowers and my offer may have offended her - I was sweating.
We are all on a very short timeline. Perhaps we can re-name it - a short "Triline" - because life is a series of trying events and tri-ing events then we check out, leaving our legs, bags and bikes all behind.
How many friends do you have? How many real friends? When you're driving home late at night, how many people in your cell phone "scroll" do you actually really want to talk to?
I read recently that the average number of close friends that people maintain has decreased in America from 3 to 2. It's amazing that people everywhere have so few very true, very close friends.
Something very special happens when you go through something challenging with people - a hard training session, an Ironman or even just a recovery dinner - common experience is the foundation of all quality human relationships.
That momentary glimpse of the lady carrying flowers home from a funeral taught me something - and I'm having a tough time putting it into words - so here are the words to the song I was listening to when this happened..
CHASING CARS at (click here to sample -> itunes) by SNOW PATROL from the album EYES OPEN (2006)
We'll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don't need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel
Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see
I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
~
