Woo Hoo!!

I had the most amazing run this morning. My love/hate relationship with running goes like this: I hate cold nasty weather, I dread going out into it, I love running, and out the door I go. Complaining the ENTIRE time. My friend Sean asked me once, "do you ever stop bitching during a run?" Nope. During races I'm worse! Needless to say, I haven't run with Sean in a while.

Today's run actually put a smile on my face the entire time. I absolutely dreaded going today because it was pouring down rain. Even the dog looked at me like I was crazy. But running in the rain isn't a big deal until you stop. That cold, wet, yucky feeling makes me say I hate running even more. However, this time I had new tunes on my ipod and a "let's get this done" attitude going.

Within the first mile, both the dog and I were drenched and covered in mud. To say she was less than amused was an understatement. I gave into the dread when we crossed the highway and like a kid, started looking for EVERY mud puddle, and puddle, I could find. I laughed and jumped into as many as I could. Because my dog is afraid of her own shadow, every time I jumped she thought for sure I was going to beat her. By the about the fifth one we were both a total wreck. Me grinning from ear to ear and her not so daintily running through every puddle too. Normally, the 65 pound lap dog, avoids water like it's acid.

So it got me thinking. Ah to be a kid again. To get dirty and not have a care in the world. I worked my children like slaves this weekend. They all dusted and vacuumed their rooms, changed their sheets, and cleaned the basement. I only asked once. Clearly these were aliens who replaced MY children who have to be asked at least 20 times to complete the simplest of tasks. But they did it without one word of complaint too. And as I sat there at night looking back on the day, I thought "what a total waste". What's a clean house worth anyway? Peace of mind? Yes, absolutely. But at what expense? Did they learn a valuable lesson in responsibility? Yes, absolutely. But what did they gain from losing time just being a kid? There has to be a fine line in there somewhere. And I guess looking back today, maybe there was. I wasn't yelling, the radio was blasting out some really fun tunes, the jobs got done in record time, and they still got to play MOST of the day with their friends. Of course it didn't hurt that I took them out for dinner because they were so great either!

I think in the end it comes down to this, take the time to have fun and get dirty, because everything washes out at the end of the day anyway. Opportunity is everything. Take every moment and run with it like you were just discovering the fun of a giant puddle for the first time.