Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Little legs

Today goes down in history as being the Day of Nirvana for me.

I went on my first run with my daughter. Up until tonight, I hadn't considered this as a possiblity. I never visualized what it might be like to see my daughter love running like I did / do.

We went to the park after dinner, dug in the sand for a few minutes then my legs got itchy. This time of night I usually get itchy legs, but tonight I had two little kids in tow, not really a time to stretch my legs.

Nevertheless, just for fun I started jogging around the park in tight little circles on the path that wound around the sandbox. I felt very much like a caged cat. Less than a minute later, Aee popped up, asking for a race. "Come on mamma!" She took off without waiting for a reply. Her little legs pumped ahead of me and I found I had a hard time keeping up.

Nirvana!

My heart sang as I saw that she now has both speed and grace. She always had an intuitive grace, but the speed was something new.

There's this little thing that we have always done before we race. We put our feet in the start position, one foot placed in the lead, straight ahead, and arms at the ready. We do a little Rocky-style punch-punch-punch to get the arms loosened up, ready to help the body propel itself properly. Seeing Aee do the little punch-punch-punch then take off like a bolt of princess-powered lightning, wow.

My heart be still.