Make today about today!

Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness--if you had little time left to live--you would waste precious little of it! Well, I'm telling you...you do have a terminal illness: It's called birth. You don't have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason--or you will never be at all.
Dan Millman

Today was my last run. It may very well be my last run forever. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. I made this run count. Every step was cherished, every breath was calculated, every song that I listened to had special meaning to me. I had more focus on my running technique instead of thinking about what I did yesterday or what I need to do today.

I made sure that I smiled as I ran by the people waiting for their bus. As I was running I looked at everything around me and thought about how lucky I was to be doing what I love to do. When I ran by cars I looked through the window to see if I knew the person, when I did recognize a few people I made sure that I gave them a thumbs up.

I've been shifting my focus from worrying about tomorrow to appreciating what I have today. I'm going to live like there is no tomorrow, or as Dan Millman says, "with a terminal illness." I've been guilty of looking ahead too much and that has resulted in not appreciating the here and now. It is probably why I love trail running so much. When I run in the trails I find the peace that I'm looking for. I swear if I didn't have other committment I WOULD be like Forrest Gump execpt that I would live and run in the trails.

If today was my last run, then I'm happy that I was able to appreciate the journey so much more than I typically would have. In the past, this would have been a very sad day as it's my last run before my race. By making that last run "sad" though, I now realize that I was robbing myself of the joy that I find by just running. Some people have said that I was born to run. Now, I'm not sure about that but I do know that running brings me the inner peace that I long for in my life. Whatever brings you inner peace, I hope that you take the time today, right now, to appreciate it.