Little jar full of match sticks

    

Sometimes it's the little gains that make the most difference. The ones hidden from view and hardly mentioned. If I had two glass jars of wooden match sticks, one representing the big events in my life, the other a collection for each of the smaller events in my life, there's no question the second jar would be much fuller. Much the same as most anyone.
     If asked, it would be a tough decision on which jar would be the one to keep, if only one could be kept. In many instances, the big events won't happen without help from little events. The crescendo does not stand alone, it is given life in the prelude and carried away by the finale. But there are big events that happen right before our eyes, or across the country, that defy the odds and stand as a signal that life is random and we must always be paying attention.  So much can happen as we sit in our homes, insulated from life beyond our domain.
     I think I'll start a collection of wooden match sticks, in two jars. Today I would have added a match stick to the little things jar after my morning run with J'net and Dave. Actually, two match sticks. First, one for the pleasure of being able to run with my wife J'net and my main training partner Dave. We mix our training speeds and distances depending on the day, it's a cooperative effort aimed at making sure everyone is able to get in a workout and enjoy each others company. My second match stick would be dropped into the jar as a thank you to Dave for pulling me along to a faster pace today. It's been just about two months since the Lake Wobegon Marathon and I've been in a bit of a training slump. We've done a couple interval sessions but I was just feeling like I was off a bit. So today we warmed up a couple miles then picked it up for two miles...and it felt great. Running faster is fun, especially when the effort seems like less than the Garmin shows. We cruised for another  two miles through Bunker Park then stopped when our friend Bryan came running the opposite direction. A short conversation ensued and suddenly we three were headed back home at a nice clip. I just love the feeling of a steady pace with friends, and a smooth path lined with pines and then prairie grass to escort us to the finish.
     At the end of the year my jar of little events would make a nice blazing display, much brighter than the jar of big events. I'd light the little events pile all at once, but take each big event match stick and light those one by one. They last longer that way, as will those memories. But the little things, the ones that come and go daily, they make a bigger impact on my life than I might have allowed myself to realize. Not any more, from now on I'll savor the little things more, comfortable in the knowledge that at the end of the year I'll have a jar full of fire to light the way into the new year.
Go Run!