Listen to the Sleet…

Celebration, FL

January 12, 2010

 

Hi, Sammy,

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Today it is 28 degrees outside my house which you will think is warm because its 5 degrees in Plymouth as I write. It only gets this cold in Florida every 20 years or so, so you'll be a grown up when it gets this cold again. I expect by that time you'll have found a favorite sport. Your parents and a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins run for exercise, so maybe you'll be a Marathon Runner.

This year, Pops and I saw the start of the Disney Half-Marathon from the Epcot parking lot as we got there at 5 am to cheer on the runners. I said to Pops as we left our house "Listen to the sound of sleet hitting the palm trees." and he said "There's a poem in there." And I said, "Yes, but I'm too cold to hear it." Most of the runners were better prepared for the cold than we were. After the race, pounds and pounds of clothes, heavy with sleet and sweat, tossed by the runners as they ran, were collected, cleaned, and donated to charities.

The "Half" is one of several races held during Marathon Weekend. 50 thousand people run through one park or another, some just for fun, but many in groups to raise money for a cause. The colors of the t-shirts people wear tell us the club they belong to, or the organization they are running/walking for. It's easy to get tired hands and voices early in the race as the first runners arrive, still full of energy, focused on their time and the finish line, so we pace our enthusiasm. As the people at the end, who may be running for the first time for a friend or for themselves because they are trying to be healthy, pass by, we find a little more voice deep down inside ourselves to encourage them to keep going. To encourage means to give courage to another, Sammy, and as in most things, what you give freely of yourself comes back one hundred fold. Watching the last, very tired and sometimes hurting people mostly walk thru the gate, I want to listen more to God's voice encouraging me to be the person I was created to be.

Did you know your name means "Heard God"? It comes from a Bible story in which the child Samuel hears God whispering to him in the night, but God speaks to us very clearly during the day too. Mom and Dad will teach you to listen; "See how much God loves you, Sammy?" they will say; and one day, sooner rather than later, you will say to them, "Listen to the sleet on the pine trees" and they will know that you have learned to hear.

Love,

Marmee