He Told Me

This weekend was the 5K held by the school I work for. It’s a wonderful philanthropic event in which our blessed community gives back. I enroll my boys every year. We like to run and hike (because we live in CO as you know and it would be crazy not to enjoy this beauty on a regular basis). My son won the 5K last year, and is in his prime teen years. I saw him coming down the sidewalk next to another younger kid. I was thinking “he’ll kick into high gear any second for the win!” He did not. I was confused and a bit disappointed.

Later he told me that he had the chance to talk to the 7th grader who won and asked “have you ever won a race?” to which the students said he had not. My son chose to let him win and told me “why would I want to out-sprint a 7th grader?” Essentially he told me it meant more to that kid than it did to him.

Suddenly I was so proud of him! Simultaneously I was disappointed in myself for being disheartened when he lost. All of the wisdom and peace I’ve worked so hard to aquire had been thrown out the window. It was a beautiful reminder. I spent the rest of the day growing again by pushing my limits with paint. I ruined two pieces of art, but there were some parts of that ruined painting that were beautiful. I’ll focus on those and grow.