Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Cherish

Even though this is a running blog, I can't start a post on the word cherish,
 which happens to be today's Wednesday Word, without addressing the tragedy in Paris. 

I have one question:

Why did this happen?

In a word, freedom
Something that so many of us take it for granted. 
Freedom to say what we want. 
To dress how we want. 
To run. 
To go to school. 
To believe what we want. 
To disagree with others who hold differing opinions than ours. 
To do all this without being censored or worse.
 In the clinic where I work, I am fortunate to work with families from all different backgrounds. Many of them are from the very nations where citizens are not allowed these freedoms. These people tell me how grateful they are to be here. 

Where they are free.

Never take it for granted.  

Cherish your freedom.
I do.
Jean Julien
"Peace for Paris"
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What else do I cherish?

The list is long for me. 

I cherish my family.

-My husband, who has a love-hate relationship with my running, but always supports me as I chase another goal. 
-My parents, who think my every accomplishment is an achievement. 
-My sons, who have brought me so much joy over the years, and so much challenge more recently. The teenage years are tough. Yet we remain close. 
-My sisters, because you always have your sisters, right?



She's part of my family, and yes, I cherish my dog

She loves me, and that's all I care about. When you have teenagers, you need to have a dog. Sometimes, she's the only person who's happy to see me when I get home. She's always happy to see me after a long day at work. Or when I come back from a run. Or when I step outside to get the mail. She's 12 1/2 and I know my time with her is limited.

I cherish my health and my fitness. 

If you follow me at all here on the blog, you know that I'm chasing the fountain of youth. I'm so grateful for my continued growth as a runner and an athlete. This year has been phenomenal for me. I hope to continue to stay active the rest of my life.


I cherish this lovely fall weather we've been having. 

It sounds so trite, to cherish the weather, but the winters really get me down. Last year, it felt like winter came so early. The fall weather this year has been amazing. I know the weather is going to change, but until it does, I'm going to run happy!

I cherish my friends, old and new. 

I am so lucky! I've got friends whom I've known for almost all my life.  We don't talk often, but when we do, it's like we saw each other yesterday. There are the neighborhood friends, most of whom have drifted away as the kids grew older, but the few remaining are still good friends. I've got work friends--we've been through it all together, and that is the bond that ties us. And my running friends, who get me! They let me talk ad nausea about the sport we have in common.

Finally, I cherish who I am today
I cherish my sense of humor, my compassionate soul, and my passion for being the best at everything I do. 
Except housework. I'm not so great at that. But does it really matter?



What do you cherish? 







86 comments :

  1. I wish that people cherished life a bit more. Rather than saw themselves as expendable. (Paris)

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  2. Beautiful! and I love the last picture! :) Paris is a reminder to cherish all and cherish our time we don't know when it will be cut short!

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  3. All great words ;-) (and the pics kind of rock, too!)

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  4. Yes so often we can easily forget to cherish all the amazing things we take for granted each day. Nice post

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    1. We seem to be getting a lot of reminders lately that life is expendable...

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  5. This is such a great post Wendy! I loved reading it - thank you for sharing your words with us.

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  6. Paris is such a sad reminder that we need to cherish. Time is guaranteed to no one.

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  7. I cherish a lot but I could afford to pay attention to those people/things/moments a little more than I do.

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  8. Yes, cherishing and gratitude go hand-in-hand. Love that you are cherishing personal qualities as well!

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    1. It's fun to think that as I get older, I really like who I am becoming. Of course, that is a work in progress...

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  9. Thank you for your post this morning. Always trying to celebrate gratitude daily!❤️

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  10. Oh man I cherish all similar things as you do. My family. My cats. Having a warm bed and a full belly when I go to bed at night. The Paris attacks and the plight of the Syrian refugees put all of my "problems" into perspective.

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  11. Another beautiful, heartfelt, deeply thoughtful post. Each component to be cherished. Noticeable is that every thing you listed, and those added by your readers, have nothing to to with wealth or stuff. It's all about people and relationships, good health, freedom, and one of our most cherished commodities, I agree, time. There's never enough, each moment must be cherished.

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    1. As I wrote this post, I reflected that nothing "material" came to mind. That made me happy!

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  12. What a beautifully written post. It's always good to sit back and reflect on the things that we cherish.

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    1. This word prompt was perfectly timed and a great reminder to cherish all that is important!

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  13. I agree dogs are essential if you have teens! Mine can tell time. Nobody else is waiting to greet me like they are! Well, unless you count kids that appear and say "What's For Supper?". There are so many things to cherish. I think the older I get, time is so precious. The time you get to spend with the ones you love means more than anything else.

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    1. As we speak, she's trying to get my attention, acting all crazy! Who's old? Not my Cleo!

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  14. Reminds me of the old song by The Association called "Cherish". And now it won't leave my head! BTW, I'm not sure why you have two layers of Captcha but you wouldn't need any if you used Akismet. If they have it for Blogger.

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    1. Weird that you had to do that because I don't have any captcha set up to comment. In fact, I just had my son test it out and he was able to leave a comment without any captcha. I get plenty of spam too...

      I will look into Akismet. I'm always up for improving interaction!

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  15. great post. I cherish life especially with what has happened in Paris.

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  16. amen - we take our freedom for granted...

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    1. We do, altho the backlash about bringing in the refugees makes me realize that people are starting to embrace what is precious to us.

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  17. I love that picture of you and your sweet pooch! Cherish ... great word and it brings up wonderful and happy thoughts and touching memories. Lovely post. Thanks for sharing yours.

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  18. Thank you! It wasn't easy for me to write...I didn't want to sound corny. But life is precious.

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  19. my family and time, this is a great post love the new blog layout also.

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  20. What a great topic! I cherish my dog too and it makes me said that I know she is only with us for a limited time.

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  21. I LOVE everything about this post. Paris has reminded all of us to cherish our loved ones as we never know when they may be taken from us.

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  22. Another wonderful post, Wendy. We've had some family health issues this past year, and I really need to cherish the time that I spend with my family. We're all spread out in different places but need to make the time to be together, so I'm really going to cherish Thanksgiving this year.

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    1. How nice that you get to see of all your family! I'm looking forward to spending time with one of my sisters and my parents. It's hard to get all of us together.

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  23. A much-needed reminder to cherish the things we hold dear, especially since we never know when we will lose those things...

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  24. Paris and Beruit reinforced for me how much I cherish human life, safety, family, and the small and wonderful comforts of everyday life.

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  25. Great post! In today's society when we are constantly reminded of reasons why we aren't "enough" and of all the hatred and hurt in the world, it's important to stop and be appreciative of the little things we have.

    Each day I am so grateful for my supportive friends and family! I cherish them and my health.

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  26. What a great post, Wendy. I'm loving the picture of you and your dog. There's nothing quite like doggie kisses and cuddles.

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  27. I cherish all of the above...I cherish my friends who are not my family and therefore not stuck with me, but still stay with me and support me through everything. I've been to Paris when I was 16. I'd really love to visit Beirut as my best friend of 20 years is Lebanese. Both attacked. Horrible.

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    1. I've never been to Paris or Beirut. Seems like that area is always in turmoil. It would be tough to live there.

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  28. Excellent post. We all need to cherish what we have.

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    1. It's events like this that make us wake up and realize what is important!

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  29. <3 Definitely something to think about. I cherish my family, my pugs and our health.

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  30. Ah...there is a lot. I guess I would start small and say I cherish the mornings when I don't have to rush and I can catch up on my blog reading and writing over a cup of coffee. And on the mornings when I am in a rush to get in the pool, I cherish the silly jokes my lane-mates make at 5AM when we're stalling for not wanting to jump into the cold water.

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  31. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. And on a lighter note, I think you should cherish having made the discovery that the housework isn't that important. ;)

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  32. I am cherishing this mild fall weather too on the East coast! Winters get me down too and I am not a fan of treadmill runs! Thank you for putting "life" into perspective this week! I cherish being on American soil this week!

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  33. love love love this post. And I agree 100% about the dog/teens!!!

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  34. No truer words have been said about our Freedom. So many of us, me included; take our freedom for granted! I'd give my right hand to be able to talk to my granddaddy again about his time in the war, if he'd talk about it. He didn't use too.

    I cherish my dog, Wrangler. Crazy to some but dang that 4-legged friend has my heart! I can just see the pure joy in his eyes when he jumps in the car with me going for a run! He may not be able to talk but I hear him loud and clear! :)

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  35. I have actually read a lot of your blog posts in the last hour. I really enjoy what you are doing here. (And as a writer of fantasy novels, I'm enjoying looking at different aspects of that when you go through them in blog post). And truly, I love world-culture building.

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  36. Love this! I cherish my freedom, the peacefulness in my life, being healthy and happy, my wonderful family, friends, and coworkers, and living in the amazing city of Chicago. Life is good for all of us. Really good.

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  37. It's my running friends that I'm cherishing right at the moment. Those crazies who are happy to get up at 4:30 to keep me company. Love every single one of them.

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  38. First of all I love the look of your new blog layout and header. What a lovely post inspired by the word cherish! I love your dog. She is so cute!

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  39. Lovely post! I think that the older we get, the more we appreciate and cherish everything. I know I certainly do!

    Thanks for linking up!

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  40. Sometimes (especially when watching the news) it's easy to feel like there's nothing but bad in the world. But I think it's important to stop and remember the blessings we do have and to be thankful for them and cherish those precious things in our lives.

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  41. The current state of the world makes me cherish freedom, love and the ability to accept all people a little bit more than I used to. Thanks for sharing #fitfamlove

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  42. I love this post. <3 I cherish the people in my life and who I am today as well!

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  43. Wonderful post. I cherish my friends and family so much.

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