Pink Clouds and Mistletoe

I had a bad day yesterday. I'm not sure why it was bad, but I felt that sense of "Uh, oh, I'm descending into the pit of despair" that sometimes hits for no reason. Perhaps it's the fact that Christmas is looming, I've done zero Christmas shopping, the outdoor lights are only halfway up and the annual Christmas card is still just a vision in my head. The house is a mess, work is piling up, laundry never seems to be finished, blah, blah, blah. I know theses are material things that should not matter in the grand scheme of things, but there they were, cluttering up my mind and screwing with my positive mindset that I've been trying so hard to cultivate over the past month.

That's it, I thought last night. I'm getting up tomorrow and going running before everyone else gets up. I set my alarm but of course stayed up too late watching Walking Dead episodes and playing Candy Crush, so by the time I drifted off it was well past midnight.

I shot up in bed around 6:15, perhaps awoken by my brain saying "Hey you! You said you were going to get up and run! If you don't do it now, you won't do it at all! Get your ass up and get out there or you will hate yourself for the rest of the day!" I cursed my brain but knew it was right, so I dragged myself out of bed, forced the contacts into my eyes and headed out the door.

As soon as I started running I instantly felt better. I don't know what it was - the cool air, the great feeling of putting one foot in front of the other, or just being up and about as the rest of the world was stirring and slowly waking up.

As I rounded the corner halfway through the first mile, my dad started playing "O Danny Boy" on the piano on my iPod. I was listening to a playlist I'd made for the marathon and I remember putting my dad on there, hoping that I'd hear him play during the race. I never heard it that day, but this morning I heard it loud and clear, those familiar sounds filling my ears as I turned and gazed at the pink clouds. All feelings of stress, frustration and general negativity began to lift. It was as if someone had reached inside my head and gently cleared it out.

That's all I needed. Everything else I saw on the run filled me with joy. Sullen teenagers walking to school looked cheerful to me. Drivers slowed and let me cross the street. The pink clouds swirled in the sky and school buses roared past me as men in business attire pulled their trash cans to the curb. As I made my way down a familiar road into my third mile, I noticed that someone had strung a garland across the sidewalk between two trees with mistletoe hanging down. I wondered if couples strolled past here in the evenings, pausing for a moment to sneak a kiss underneath.

By the time I was in the home stretch, my dad's favorite song was playing on my iPod. During my work day as I drove around to see patients, the two times I glanced at the clock it was 11:11 and 1:11. Coincidence? I don't think so. Our angels are always with us and sometimes they make themselves known.

Today felt like one of those days.