back at it

It has been a summer of extremes. 

In June, my mother-in-law had one last cancer diagnosis, declined treatment, and passed away within weeks.  For S, whose dad just died 3 years ago, it was simply not fair.  For me, it was like reliving my own mother's cancer death, but perhaps with a little more maturity and presence.  We're lucky that the kids don't understand the significance of it all.  It was a rough month, but I think our family has handled it all as well as possible.

From bereavement, we've surfaced with a renewed desire to live our lives exactly as we want.  We had to cancel our scheduled camping trip, but replaced it with a once-in-a-lifetime Caribbean vacation.  Our kids' first air travel went amazingly smoothly (thank you, iPhones) and the trip was perfectly lazy.  I didn't even pack running shoes, and spent the bulk of my time either eating, drinking, swimming, or sitting in a lounge chair knitting while the kids played in the sand.  Sure, all our stresses were still here when we came back, but what a trip.

Looking forward, our minds are spinning with a lot of ideas for how to make sure we take advantage of our health and youth.  So many things are up in the air that I needed a focus.  So, in a whim of decisiveness, I signed up for a November marathon.  Training is underway, and I'm going to see how the first few weeks go before I settle on whether I'm in shape to go after a certain time goal.  Training right now is HOT, and I'm thoroughly thrilled at the idea of running in the cold 3 months from now.  I even have a new GPS watch on the way, and am terribly excited to become a gadget worshipper.

Like I said: a summer of extremes.