See your Magic

April 20, 2015

My Aunt would have celebrated her 48th birthday. In the two years since she’s passed away, she continues to shape me. She continues to inspire me. It was at the kitchen table in her Mom’s house in Wisconsin nearly twenty years ago that I came to understand myself. She saw me, and she reflected back to me all the passion I had yet to find inside of myself.

I put on my platform boots. I drank a large iced coffee. It felt like such a celebration of Amy.

With my platform boots on my feet and my iced coffee in hand, I watched The Boston Marathon on one monitor at work while work continued on the other. I squealed with delight as I saw familiar faces. My heart ached as I watched favorite runners fall out of the lead pack. My heart swelled as every runner made a final surge for the finish line. I love this sport, this race and this marathon.

These two events colliding together on the calender make me want to push harder, live bigger, and love more. These two events make me want to feel it all.

Life has been so good to me this year. Life has embraced me. I want to embrace it back. How can I make my heart visible to others? How can I bring the passion my aunt saw in me to the surface for everyone to see? There is one thing that makes me feel alive. There is one thing that lets me feel every emotion of life. For me it is running. It’s the marathon.

“There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.” ~Kristen Armstrong

There is magic in the marathon! My soul is ready to be laid bare! 

If I could make one promise to my aunt, I’d promise her I’d see people the way she saw me. I’d promise her I wouldn’t hide. Pay it forward! Find the magic in yourself. Find the magic in people!