Nearly four months to the day,
What seems like a lifetime ago,
So much so that today everything seemed new,
I ran with people again,
A group,
The group,
The early risers who dare it all,
Hot,
Cold,
Well not so much the rain,
But a hearty group given
Most of us should probably be walking instead.

Things have changed since March,
Longer hair, declining waistlines, tanner skin, no gloves,
But things hadn’t changed also,
Inappropriate comments, grammar investigations, comradery.
What’s been missing in my running has been social,
Sure, the lone wolf thing has been good,
But I’ve missed the group, the hanging after,
Because it’s good for the soul to be around people
Who can relay stories of squirrel bottle rockets,
Paying to learn that their appearance and DNA pretty much match,
The reasons for wanting to retire in the mountains, and
Probably a whole lot more stuff than my feeble memory could store.

It feels good to be back.
The sweat,
The pace,
The laugher,
That sense that even though we’ve all been through a rough patch
There are still folks out there with a healthy bit of insanity,
The kind that is happy to avoid controversy,
To be content with the day to day living,
Kind of an appreciation for the beauty of predictability,
The folly of the mundane, and
An awareness that life really is meant to be lived.

Four months is too long…