Summer?!

It's finally here! What a glorious few days we've had. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I've got a song in my heart, metaphorically speaking of course. I've even managed to get out jogging these past couple of days. I'm not one of those cold-weather joggers that you see all bundled up, with their steel-belted running shoes, toques, and snow suits, trekking along Elizabeth Avenue in the freezing wind and below-zero temps. Forget it.

I love running. I always have, really. Since my late teens, I've loved stepping into my shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes and hitting the pavement...although in recent years, I prefer the soft ground. It's just easier on the joints. Not as much chance of shin splints. I even met my wife at the end of a long jog up the afore-mentioned Elizabeth Avenue. It was a sunny, warm evening in early September, a lot of years ago, and I got a call from my best friend, asking what I was up to. A friend of his was in town, and since I was getting ready to go running, I ran the six miles or so to his place and met this beautiful young girl of eighteen who stole my heart. I was nineteen at the time, so it was legit. We spent the whole night talking and four years later, we were were married.

There's something about running that I've always loved. It's the fast movement. Pushing the body to go for as long and (sometimes) as fast as it will go. But it's more than the exercise. I've never been crazy about exercise for it's own sake. But I find that running is meditative. It's almost like a trance. Nowadays, I carry my mp3 player and listen to my special "Running Man" folder, with all kinds of cool songs on it. But when I reach a stretch of the path that runs alongside a pond and is sheltered in trees, with hardly a breath of wind, I switch of the music and listen to the sounds of nature. It seems sacrilegious to do otherwise. I meet a lot of the same people on my journey, so it's become somewhat of a community--lots of friendly faces, smiling and waving. But there's lots of entertaining stuff to see too. Occasionally, I get a squirrel crossing my path. Lots of bright colored birds swoop down right in front of me. Yesterday I saw two beautiful, speeding finches. They tend to fly ahead just a bit and stop, wait for me to catch up (or so it seems) and then they fly off again. One time last year, there was this great big monarch butterfly that stopped in the path in front of me. When I stopped and bent down, holding out my hand, the butterfly flew right into my palm and stayed there for a couple of minutes. Those kinds of things are part of what I love my about jogging. It's the outdoors, the adrenaline rush, the exercise of course, the people, and the staying in shape after a horribly long winter.

As I said, I can't run in cold weather. I won't. So I've been waiting...and waiting. I've gotten out a few times this spring, but there's nothing like that first time I can shed the track pants and sweat shirt and just go in shorts and t-shirt. It's like a rush of freedom.

So I went out yesterday and today, and just loved it. In between working on my novel, of course. The end isn't in sight yet, but it's getting there. The running actually helps clear my brain. Sometimes, I think up plot points and ideas for characters while I'm out there.

Any other runners out there? I'd love to hear from you!

Gerard

Over the years