Lookin’ Strong

In July in Texas, you have to get up early to beat the heat. If you’re a runner, “beating the heat” means running in 82 degrees. (Yes. 82 degrees IN THE EARLY MORNING.)

So I find myself one morning, trudging along, one heavy, slow-motion, pounding footstep after another, asking myself, UGGGHHHH Can you even call this running?

My shorts and tank are wet with sweat.
My water is nearly gone. 
And I’m only halfway.

My mental coach quit a mile ago, and I’m struggling. My mantra is careening back and forth between I-can’t-do-this and Jesus-please-help-me-do-this. The negative voices in my head are starting to seize control and they’re using the word “too” a lot.

Too hard.
Too hot.
Too pointless.

And then I see the angel.

She’s sporting a bike today instead of wings, and a helmet has replaced the halo, but she’s an angel all the same. I know this because as she whizzes by she calls out, 

“Lookin’ strong.”

And I know it’s an angel because I don’t look strong physically at the moment, all red face, sweaty ponytail and sloooow, plodding pace — but she’s an angel and she’s talking to my inner me. The me that wants to finish the run, the me that’s pushing to finish the run, the me that’s trying so hard

to finish
the run.

She looks past the physical – as angels so often do – and addresses the real me. 

It’s JUST what I needed.

I take a swig of water and a deep breath.
I accept that the pace will be slow —
and
I finish. the. run.

Because an angel said my inner me was strong.

It’s a small thing, I know, but it was a big thing to me that morning.

AND I’M THINKING

Maybe other people need to hear this too. The senior struggling to get out of her chair — again. The teenager wrestling with his math assignment — again. A Twenty-Something who doesn’t know what her next step is going to be in this pandemic-focused world. Adults strategizing over a family budget which is now unexpectedly smaller and tighter. I could go on, but you get it. Maybe someone has already sprung to your mind…

This week, look around your world (even if COVID-19 has reduced your “world” to your “household”) and find someone who needs to hear that they’re lookin’ strong.

You know.
Be someone’s angel.