Savoring Summertime

While running in hot and humid conditions may not be my favorite running weather, I embrace the sweet scents and sensations that accompany running in the summer. Here in the greater Boston area, the summer season is short lived although I begin savoring the longer days and needing fewer layers to run long before the summer solstice.

It would be easy to bemoan all the "nots" happening this summer with races and trips to the Cape being cancelled yet my heart overflows with gratitude.

This summer, set against the backdrop of a pandemic, generates a deeper feeling of grace and gratitude for gifts great and small in our lives. Team McManus has SO much to be grateful for this year. For the first time in 3 years, Ruth Anne is healthy! We celebrate her and her twin brother's birthday on August 7th. We will mark her Healthiversary on August 28th, the date of her last hospitalization and the beginning of a new era in her life. We are so blessed that Tom's job has been secure and that he works from home 4 days a week. We are all healthy and strong and while we had a few bumps along the road with Ruth Anne's healing, we are blessed with a great team in place and friends who support us with love and prayers. I also know to call on the angels when necessary.

On Wednesday, Ruth Anne and I set out on our morning run. The Reservoir was packed with people. We decided to change up our route and go down Beacon Street.

I took these photos along the way to capture and savor the beauty of our run and the joy of being together:


We were soaked to the skin when we got home and enjoyed the after glow of sweat glistening on our skin.

For the past 3 years, summers were spent navigating visits to Urgent Care and ER's with no end in sight but we finally found the Missing Puzzle Piece.

Even though the summer of 2020 is unlike any we have known before, we are savoring every moment.

From the soon to be released "Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life Volume II":

Summer

Watermelon peaches strawberries
dribbling juices
sweet corn on the cob
popsicles drip
sticky hands washed clean in ocean or pool
unbridled joy of summertime.

Sweet scent of gentle breezes
freshly mowed grass
raised beds on lawns
garden vegetables ripen
lush reds and greens
a savory salad from Source.

Time slows
days grow longer
savoring moments
sunshine beckons
inner child unleashed
running through sprinklers
slip 'n slide
a ride with top down
star gazing.

Soon...
green leaves pale
before bursting into autumn splendor
for now I celebrate
eternal summer.

Whatever the circumstances that may surround us, we get to choose our response. In our little corner of the world we are practicing social distancing, wearing masks, washing our hands and doing everything we can to boost our immune systems through healthy living. We are focusing on good news, practicing meditation sending out healing to the world, having an attitude and practice of gratitude and squeezing out and savoring glorious summertime moments.

Dining al fresco in our garden bathed and blessed by evening's light:


From my heart to yours
To your health and wellness
Mary

Be sure to visit my website at www.marymcmanus.com to learn more about my inspiring journey from having been told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair to the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and beyond.

My books are available on Amazon.