i am grateful for:
1) the lovely newish french café in my hood. free wifi, good coffee, yummy pastries, and enough space that i don’t feel guilty sitting for hours.
2) the triathlon! not mine, but my hunny’s. he rocked it in just over 2.5 hours, we raised a bunch of money together for leukemia & lymphoma research, and it was such a fun, moving, enlivening experience, even though the most exercise i did was walk around trying to find him on various parts of the race.
3) the woman who popped out of the swimming portion well before most of the men and was handed pink crutches. as she raced across the sand on them i realized she had only one leg.
4) welling up over and over. like when a woman came up to me and said, “what’s the purple hat?” pointing to brad. when i said it was the l&l foundation, she said, “oh, i have myeloma and they are such a good organization.” and when i explained to another woman that i was a survivor and b. had always wanted to do a triathlon, she said, “oh, so this is really meaningful to you both.” yes.
5) my mom and her partner coming to the race, last minute, getting up at 4am to do so. amazing.
6) the people who donated.
7) getting to be a cheerleader.
8) the beautiful sunrise over the water at the surprisingly beautiful beach next to rye playland. who knew? lots of people, but, wow.
9) hearing people yell “great work! good job! you’ve got it!” to complete strangers. it’s so healing to hear encouragement out loud, in public. it’s so incredibly rare it makes me want to cry.
10) the guy who crossed the finish line holding his toddler son.
11) a beautiful day.
12) my hon.
