I was wearing Abby’s hat. Without her full support. It’s not my fault it was so super cute on me!
It was so windy. All of a sudden her hat was blowing farther and farther away. I had to get it back, Abby was already irritated with me. So I took off after it. Barefoot on the beach.
After catching up to it, as I headed back, I caught a glimpse of a smirk on Vivian’s face. She said ‘I know who’s running my next half with me.’ Dammit! She saw me running. Playing dumb, I squinted my eyes and said ‘huh? Who?’
She said ‘you are.’
But wait a minute. She knows about my joints – my struggle with arthritis. She knows about the ridiculous meds it takes just to keep me moving. She knows about the extra weight I carry. She knows about the times a 15 min walk through a grocery store meant I couldn’t walk for 2 or 3 days.
Why would she say such a crazy thing?
But I couldn’t shake her words. And I knew I had grown complacent, just thankful I could do basic things. I have my life back, I don’t need to do anything crazy. But what if I could?
I approached her about it a few weeks later. “Do you really think…?”
She was fairly adamant “Yes. Absolutely. I really do, and I don’t think just anyone could. But you can.”
She believed in me. And for whatever reason I believed her.
It was fuel, it propelled me. And just like that, I got some running shoes and started hobbling my way through Couch to 5k. My friends check in on me often, and tell me encouraging things. They believe in me. It’s fuel, it propels me. Abby runs with me. She tells me I can keep going when I’m not so sure…. It’s fuel.
It’s so very powerful when someone believes in you…. when you don’t believe in yourself.
Especially when it’s someone you don’t live with (because lets face it, those people will tell you anything🤣).
Driving to an errand last week Matt was telling me about that morning’s workout. He said his coach Mike wanted him to lift more weight than he thought he could. And then he did.
Matt teared up a little as he said “he believed I could do it. I didn’t think I could do it. It felt really good to have him believe in me.” Awww, babe ❤
I kind of squealed “yes! That’s exactly why my fat ass is out there running every night!”
This isn’t really a running story (although I’m going on 3 mons of this craziness and I’m kind of proud of that 😊).
It’s just… I wonder what we could accomplish if we believed great things about each other more. I truly think we could change the world.
They may not tell you, they may not even realize – but if you are believing in someone special you are changing their life. You are fueling them and propelling them… It matters.