"It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone..."

One day a few weeks ago, while I ran on the treadmill, as I listened to deeply inspiring music and felt really happy to be running, I was struck by an idea. An idea that I thought was a prompting, but an idea that I put off expressing. I'm not sure why. But it keeps coming back to me, and I realize that if I don't express it, it'll keep knocking around in my mind until I'm thoroughly beat-up, inside-out.

I was visualizing the marathon. The end, specifically. I benefit greatly from visualizing, and I have an emotional response when I do. So here I am, running, near-tears with the joy of what I am imagining (finishing!), and it hits me: I need to share this joy.

Not just by writing about it.
Not just by telling people about it.

But by inviting you--yes, YOU--to do it, too.

I promise it is worth it.
I promise it is beneficial in countless ways.
I promise that the very process of training will change your life, and awaken you to your potential. Not just your physical potential, but your emotional and mental capacity to do incredible things. It is the perfect metaphor for life, proving that when we make smaller steps in the right direction, day after day, we are actually gradually creating something beautiful that we will see after all the hard work is done.

This morning, out of the blue, I imagined myself and Jenn finishing the marathon this year. Then I skipped ahead to 2012, and there was another person running with us. Then 2013, and there was yet another. And the idea had finally completed itself in my mind:

I want what I'm doing--and what thousands more will do in October here in Saint George--to be contagious.

Here's what I hear you say:
Oh, you're so good. I could never do that.
Maybe if I was in better shape, I could do that.
Maybe in a few years.
I secretly wish I could do that.

I'm telling you, I'm not doing anything you can't do if you want to! I started from ground zero, physically speaking, and I'm starting from ground zero again this year (blast consistency! It is my Achilles Heel!).

If you don't want to do a marathon, maybe it's something else you're afraid of. Something else you want to do, but feel you aren't able to do.
You are able. 

Maybe you feel you don't deserve it. Maybe you feel unable to reconcile yourself with the kind of person who would do that--whatever "that" may be. But the truth is, you are the kind of person who would do that. The kind of person who would conquer fear and do what frightens you the most, or what seems the most difficult.

I have your back. I'm cheering you on every step of the way. I know we forget what we're capable of. That's why I'm running again this year. To remember how it felt to do what looked impossible.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-Marianne Williamson