Running Track

I realize that the title of this post is a little deceptive. I have never, nor do I ever plan to, run track. But my brother ran track in high school and I would go to his meets. My brother was a sprinter, but he would run the 2-mile, just for fun. He would finish the race dead last, with a smile on his face.

I was thinking about life the other day and how it's kind of like that 2-mile.

When the gun goes off, everyone starts off the same. By the 1/4 mile mark, everyone is staggered; some are ahead, some are behind and there a few that are the same. By the first mile, maybe the one that was in first has slowed into the middle, and the one who was last could be nearer the front. Those who were in the middle can have slowed down or sped up. Eventually, they all reach the end of the race, but they all reach it at a different time. And as long as you have enjoyed the run and end the race with a smile on your face, people notice.

This is just like life. We might all start out from birth the same; start walking at the proper age, start school at 5, learn how to read, write, and tie our shoes. But by the time we get to our teens we have all spread out to different levels. By the time we are twenty, those levels might have changed and some of us might have leveled out with each other, and the one who was behind may come out more ahead, and the one who was ahead might have evened out. It doesn't really matter how fast or slow we might have run our race, in comparison to everyone else, it's about how we ran it and how we end it.

With a smile.