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It’s an established fact that I run like an elf. Even miles and miles of training cannot undo the basic fact that if God had wanted me to run like a normal human being; He would have given me some Nike Shocks (Primo deluxe rich people shoes) of my own. Wait a minute...... He did. So let me back up a moment and explain. I walk into the gym on Friday, just feeling in the total avoidance of my life mode (which is what the gym is so great for accomplishing) and there are all of my friends in the cycle class. “SURPRISE!” They scream. I look around. Who are they surprising? I think to myself that it must be someone’s birthday. Darn the luck, I didn’t get to sign the card. When I realize everyone is looking at me, I start to shake. Why is everyone looking at me? Oh no, this cannot be happening. These people CANNOT be doing ONE MORE thing for me. I look away, shaking, wondering if this can really be transpiring. “Surprise!” They shout again. “Who are we surprising?” I squeak; shaking more. I am waiting for an answer which is not “you” because I don’t think I deserve one more speck of their love and kindness. It is too, too much; my mind cannot compute the bountiful unlimited compassion and love these people have expressed. “YOU!” They shout, and I hear blood in my ears. I wonder if I will faint, right there on the floor of the cycle room like some kind of crazy person. Which I am, of course. A shiny gift bag is thrust in my direction, and I open it to reveal not only a gift card to Toys R Us for my youngest, but a shoe box. Not just any shoe box, ah, no, my friends, no, no, indeed. This box, this primo box, is a Nike shoe box lined with velvet. YOU HEARD ME PEOPLE, I SAID LINED WITH VELVET. And the splendor does not end there, oh, no, it continues in its glory. Inside the box, I see a velvet BAG. I feel like a little kid at Christmas who cannot get past the box to whatever lurks inside. “This bag is VELVET!” I shout. My hands are shaking so bad that I cannot control them. They are strange appendages stuck on the bottom of my arms. I cannot open the bag, I cannot. All the while I am struggling with the bag with my shaky hands, I am still thinking: Carrick did not die and my life is normal and I don’t deserve people to be nice to me; I am not worthy; I am still not worthy. Christy and Kristi help me open the bag and inside are the most SPLENDIFEROUS, AMAZING shoes ever created. For me. These shoes are pink and green and lime; Nike Shocks of such value that I keep trying to imagine it and falling into a void of disbelief. “Wait!” Jeanine exclaims, “Look at the back.” I flip those gorgeous gals over, and there, on the back of the shoe in reflective surface is green stitching. “Kimra”. I cannot compute this information. I blink, transfixed by this beautiful footwear. “They are for your marathon!” Someone reveals in glee. “But.” I stammer. I feel the room threatening to black away in a fog of gray. “I cannot RUN in these shoes! I will get them dirty!” I am staring at the pink and imagining them being besmirched by puddles and dust and the filth of the road. These shoes must stay PRISTINE and as glorious as they are at this moment. “You must run in them!” Jeanine declares, “That is why we got them for you!” And so it was that God presented me (via the most golden-hearted folks in the world) with a pair of custom-created Nike Shocks to transform my elfy run into that of a REAL WOMAN. I felt like Pinnochio when he realized he had no strings. Surely (if I survived this moment in time and did not pass out there on the floor and bang my brains out all over the place), with shoes so SUPERB, I would run like the wind. I am pretty sure that even the magical shoes have not kept me from running like an elf. I do, however, believe that the utlra-cushy shoe wear has given me a certain cunning edge of confidence which comes from wearing a pink pair of shoes with one’s name on the back. I run with the knowledge that my supreme footwear is surpassed only by the strength that I draw from knowing I am not alone as I elf it up without my son, but with overwhelming support from those I love.
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