A Terrible, Horrible, No-good, Very Bad Day

With apologies to the author of that children's book, I had a rotten day on Saturday, July 26. Yes, I know this is not my personal diary; it's supposed to be a blog of potentially inspiring cultural and theological observations.

But maybe I can make a theological point at the end.

Anyway, my brother Jay was visiting for the past three weeks and just left last Wednesday (July 30). We did quite a bit of traveling (including a week-long mission trip) and site-seeing and I was still trying to work as much as possible, see my other friends and keep up my training for a fall marathon. I was exhausted toward July's end.

I went on a long training run in Kincaid, where it poured rain the entire time I was out there (1.5 hours). When I came back to the chalet, I discovered my car key had fallen out of my pocket. I called a friend who has my spare to come get me. While I waited for my friend, I decided to check out a portion of trail where I thought I might have lost the key. Running just a few minutes away from the chalet, I came upon a woman stopped by a black bear cub. We shooed it into the bushes on one side of the trail, then noticed a mama black bear on the other side of the trail. Oops. We shooed her away too and ran for the chalet.

Now I want to point out that I am weary of bears. This is the first one (two) I've seen this summer. My very favorite and regular place to run is the trails near Hilltop ski resort. But since there have been so many reported grizzly encounters, I have stopped running there. I'm trying to give the bears their space. Which is why seeing them at Kincaid was such a bummer. Come on! I'm trying to be bear sensitive! What's a runner to do?

Anyway, I came home, showered and prepared dinner. While chopping mint leaves for the tabbouli, I sliced my left middle finger quite thoroughly, spattered blood all over the kitchen and had a friend drive me to the Emergency Room. I couldn't feel the end of the finger at all, which concerned me. But the ER doc just super-glued me back together. He said I should get most of the feeling back in a few weeks; right now a week later its still quite numb.

So, am I just a whiner? Maybe. We all have bad days, many so much worse than my minor complaints. But it just reminded me that when summer gets busy with vistors, travel, outdoor pursuits that its easy to run so fast we miss the little things that really are the big things. Like the kindness of my friend who picked me up at Kincaid. The tangy taste of the tabbouli (minus the bloody mint leaves). The gentle sound of the rain that leaves Kincaid so freshly green.

I'm reminded to slow down. And be more careful with my kitchen knife.