Green and Yellow

Remember when I wrote about that one run I had where signs from my Dad seemed to be everywhere? I just had another one of those moments.

I decided to go for a run this morning. I'd been in a slump since my last run - the death of my cats and the endless drives back and forth to the ice rink this past weekend for Jack's hockey tournament threw a wrench into my running routine. Even though I didn't feel like it, I put on my shoes and forced myself out the door.

As I started to run, thoughts flowed through my head as they always do. I thought about my cats, about my sadness, about how life is full of ups and downs. I thought about my Dad and how it seemed unreal that he's been gone now for over a year. All these thoughts entered my head within the first few minutes of my run.

Then I saw them. As I started going up a long hill, I glanced to the side and saw two artificial flowers lying in the grass by the curb. Nothing else was around them to suggest why they were there - no trash cans, no other things tossed aside that they may have fallen out of. They caught my eye because they were bright - one was green and one was yellow. I turned my head and kept going.

But then something made me stop and turn back. Inexplicably I found myself picking up the flowers, after furtively glancing around to make sure no one saw the crazy lady picking up random things from the side of the road.

I ran three and a half miles clutching those flowers in my hand. Best run ever. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, nothing hurt - it was perfect. Every now and then I'd glance down at the flowers and laugh at myself. What was I thinking?

Let me clarify that I do not think my cats sent me these flowers. I think signs appear when you need them the most - and I think these flowers were there to let me know that everything is ok. I did the right thing when I said goodbye to my cats. How the flowers ended up there is irrelevant. Someone probably threw them out. But they were there right at the moment I needed them, just like all those little signs I wrote about almost exactly one year ago today.

At the end of my run my dad's favorite song happened to start playing - and my ipod was set on shuffle. Pure coincidence? Maybe. Did it make me feel good? You bet.