The Marathon

You just keep going..... That was the advice that he gave her....those four words kept running through her brain, like a constant marathon which ironically was the motivation behind it in the first place. So today, she just kept going.... She just kept running. And when she got home, she kept going. She went to the grocery store and she downloaded a movie.... She kept going. She started to make dinner, and stared to watch the movie. She kept going. She looked outside and saw the sun starting to set. In a quick moment of spontaneity, she threw a bag together to head for the sea wall... Urged by something unknown inside of her. She kept going. She rode her bike quickly to the wall, and jumped up. She saw the silhouette of Mt. Fuji staring powerfully back at her... Also urging her to keep going. She stared powerfully back at Mt. Fuji as it slowly started to merge with the impending darkness. She kept wishing.... As the tall grasses rustled in the wind, she kept wishing. As the fishermen swooshed their poles in the air to cast for fish in the glassy river, she kept wishing, and they kept fishing. The fish kept jumping. And as Mt. Fuji faded into the night, she took a moment. She took a moment to stop.... to stop going, and to stop wishing. She took a moment to clear her head, appreciate her life, her family, her friends, her job, all the positive and wonderful things in her life that are the very reasons she keeps going.....every day. Life is like an endless marathon where you just keep going. You choose you path, you choose your pace. You choose your "running partners" and you choose certain challenges. It is a race against yourself, and how you finish that race can only be determined by you and how you choose to run. And in that moment of realization, she knew she was already a winner....and she kept going. -M