Oh my goodness. To say that life is busy in the Steffen household would be an understatement. With school back in full swing and the boys football schedule, finding time for myself is a challenge… let alone finding quality time with each boys is nonexistent.
Monday mid-morning, I wanted to get a few miles of trail under my belt. I needed to run and I craved nature. I really wanted to run by myself… but I also knew that my oldest son needed some quality Mommy time.
I asked if he wanted to go for a 3 mile trail run with me… and he said yes! That was a success in my book… that he actually wanted to spend time with me and run with me. Yay!
We headed to my favorite local trail and headed out for our adventure.
We ran. We hiked. We talked. We laughed. We explored. We conquered.
We also ran into a bunch of icky, sticky spider webs… and ate a few bugs. Yuck.
On our return route we ran the Happy Jack trail… and C was doing a happy jumping Jack. Silly boy.
We covered a little over 3 miles. We ran a bit. We walked a lot. I really wanted to run more on the routine route, but C was suddenly super talkative. I realized that this was my chance to listen and be present. We walked/hiked and he talked. I listened. I learned all about the going-ons in his 5th grade classroom. His thoughts of football. We even had some good theological conversations about life.
I learned that even when life doesn’t go necessarily as planned… sometimes it is best to slow down and live in the moment. Stop making noise and just listen. You might just learn something new that can help not only you… but someone you love.
Trail running with my oldest reminded me that when our schedule gets busy, especially when our schedule gets busy!, it is important to take time to reconnect.
I look forward to running (or even hiking) with him in the near future.
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