"High" on Fathers Day

Is he really smiling or even

happy or just "high".

3 of these 5 pictures

really have a lot to do with my best friend upstairs........... rather than being focused on "Fathers Day". So I started out by just figuring I would find some favorite pictures and post them and just let the day go with just that. 2 of the 3 pictures I am talking about here are not even "us". Even so they make me think of "us". For that matter the stack of books I picked for the picture are not mine either. I have plenty of books that I could have featured in a picture but these seemed interesting. I like to re read books and especially the ones that I underlined the first time through. Books that I have underlined in includes a lot of good books. The stuff underlined seems to quickly recapture the book for me on the subsequent times through. I also like to go from book to book finding a common thread or thought that I have an interest in. The scriptures are easier to do this with since you can find references for all the places the "thought of interest" appears.

I like to run and I enjoy watching a good boxing match. Actually I would like to put on some gloves and have a good fight a lot of the time but "wanting" is easier than "doing", I suppose. Even so the challenges we sometimes meet can be a surprise. I really like this picture of me half way through the Saint George Marathon a few years back. I don't know which one but it was probably one of my earlier races. I look at the picture and I see my foot turned more than normal. I see the bandage on my knee that I had put on at mile 10 or somewhere along the line. I look at my face and I realize that perhaps the secret to looking like your smiling is to sincerely wish you had died a mile or two back. I recall the wish was even stronger at mile 22 that day. I remember when I ran into the park in downtown Saint George I laid on the ground and all I could see was stabbing white light and even though I drank a lot of water it made little difference for a long time. I actually, a week ago, for the first time in probably 15 years saw the same light and felt a little like that. I had gotten home from a 10 mile run. The mileage was not the issue but I didn't take any water with me. I have always been ok without water up to 8 to 10 miles but last Saturday was hotter than normal and I just drained my body of water. The main thing I remember a week later about the white stabbing light and being lost for a moment in the pain was that in some odd way it was a little bit of a "high" actually. Not like the overall running high but in a odd way getting through it was a high. Nothing equals the "high" that a long run can produce.

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Good Quotes for the day

Statement after losing his first fight to Ken Norton, March 31, 1973: I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
Muhammad Ali

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Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali