Advent Day 16 - Bare

I'm a runner.  But making that statement still feels not quite right to me.  I have visions of what a runner should be, should look like, be capable of.  And very little of that do I find in myself.  Yet, I am.  It's in my heart.  It's something that I love.  It's something I do my very best at.  My best.  It's hard to let it settle in sometimes that what something looks like on another is not what it looks like on me.  Yet we both are doing the exact same thing, wearing the exact same thing.  The past few mornings running has taken me down a beautiful wooded path, winter woods...I love them.  More so than summer woods.  You can see the true structures.  Nothing hidden by fluff or dressing...you see the real that holds all the rest.  Sometimes I guess even trees need a break.  Need to rest a while, let their covering fall to the ground and be laid bare.  I feel like that is what is happening to me lately.  It's cold and I feel exposed and all can see the spindly structure of what really lies beneath.  But like the trees, that underneath is beautiful.  It's the heart of the tree, the solid place that the lovely can bloom without fear.  The solid will hold.  And so will mine.  Thankful.