Here's To You: Lady at the Park with 2 1/2 Kids

You know, it's not often enough that you run into truly kind people who also speak truly kind things these days. I'm guilty of it too. I may think a nice thought about someone but not say it out loud because I'm too embarrassed. I've been working on it though, and a lady this morning just encouraged me to work on it even harder - by example. 

So recently I bought a jogging stroller online (for $18! What a steal! I love good online yardsale deals). I bought it thinking it would give me the motivation to start running again. I used to LOVE running before I was pregnant. It was my exercise of choice for years. Now, I can tell you what my husband was thinking... "Buying toys to help you exercise won't make you exercise." I know he was thinking this because for my birthday I asked for a yoga mat, which I used for about a month after which it just sat around in a corner in my house. This time was different, though. I could feel it. 

I couldn't go running during the day when Olivia takes her naps because it's too darn hot, and I couldn't go running in the evening because I'm too dang tired. So I made a plan. With a jogging stroller I can bring my baby with me (which is awesome, because she LOVES walks) and I can go in the morning while it's still (relatively) cool. Well, I've been running at our neighborhood park for about a week and a half now, and let me tell you, it has not been easy. I am so out of shape. I mean it's taken me nearly a year after having a baby to get a true motivation for exercise again (like I said earlier, I'd get it in spurts throughout the months, but it never stuck). So the goal I made for myself was to run two laps around the park, until that starts to get easier and then maybe three or four. Well, I stopped for a drink at the water fountain like I always do after my run, sweating like a pig and breathing like Darth Vader, when this super cute pregnant lady enters the park with a little girl on a scooter and a littler boy in an umbrella stroller. I was a little embarrassed by my state of being so I stuck my face into the water fountain as she walked by. Something she said to me, though, made me smile then, and all the way back home.

"Good job exercising!" She didn't say it in a demeaning way or sarcastic way,  but in a really encouraging way. 

"Thank you!" I replied, but I don't think that really conveyed, between my spurts of spastic breathing, how truly grateful I was for her comment. That was just what I needed to hear after a hard not-so-long run. So here's to you, lady at the park with 2 1/2 kids. Thank you for speaking your mind and making my day. And probably keeping me at it (running) longer.