There are callouses at the ends of my toes. You might think that my shoes are too small but, in fact, they are fine. I spend a lot of time in them, of course, running. Running up. Running down. Not much running flat. Someone asked me today if I had drunk a beer at lunch. No, in fact, I had been for a run. Running is like that for me, and I forget to do it all the time.
The same with writing. I do not have callouses on my fingers, but I often have stories in my head. Sometimes I forget to hold on to them, then when I go to write them down, they are not there. This makes me anxious. What have I been doing that I have forgotten the story? It seems unlikely that I have been doing anything so important that I can’t hold on to the story. Yet, sometimes it is like that.
But I feel grateful after I run. I feel grateful after I write. I feel grateful some mornings and more grateful on days when I remember to be grateful in the morning. Imagine what the days are like when I am grateful in the morning, and run, and write! An extraneous use of the exclamation point! That is what those days are like. It would also be wonderful, on those days, to have a nap.