Don't waste your gift

We all have something to offer. For myself, I know that I was given the gift of running 3 years ago and it has changed my life for the better.

At my son's baseball game last night, I was speaking to one of the fathers there. I mentioned to him that I had a race this weekend and he was immediately interested in learning more about it. The subject switched to how I started running in the first place and I revealed to him my separation and how it led to my running. As we spoke more, he also said that he and his wife were having difficulties and that they were probably headed for a separation/divorce themselves. I could tell that he needed someone to talk to so I told him that if he wanted to get together sometime I would be more than willing to help him out in any way possible. He explained to me that most of the friends he had were "her" friends and so he really didn't have much support. It reminded me of my own situation 3 years ago.

This is just one of the many things that running has allowed me to become. I would have never approached someone or offered to meet with someone like that if it was 3 years ago. I lived such a sheltered life then and I too had very few friends at the time.

Since I discovered running, I have been exposed to a different set of people who are all positive and this has had an incredible impact on my own life. In particular, the trail running friends that I have met all seem to embrace the "living for now" philosophy. They are all so welcoming and I've yet to do a race where I've had a bad experience from anyone. I was "adopted" by so many of them that it takes me so long now to say hello to them all (LOL).

My "gift" as I've learned, isn't just about teaching people how to run. The gift that I was given was allowing me to become a better person than I was before. As a result, my ability to communicate with people, like I do with my blog, has increased tremendously. I've been able to touch more people this way, like the father I met last night.

We all are given a gift we just have to figure out what it is and then work hard to enhance it. There are different mediums to improve this gift and thankfully my medium is running. What's yours?