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It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Hi y'all,

Best time of the year when everyone comes home. With all that christmas cheer it's hard to feel alone. Putting up the christmas tree with friends who come around. It's so much fun when christmas comes to tooooooown!

Bring on the stockings, the advent calanders, the cookbooks, the big mugs of hot whatever content, the frosty runs, the dark cozy nights with the calming flames of yule logs (be them the netflix kind or the ones in bucket in your yard), stargazing, feel-good christmas movies, friends and family, love and laughter. This is my favorite time of year. The lights, the music, the food, the all that is december and the all that is peace and quiet. Each and every year I pray for snow to fall so all becomes quiet and calm and everyone embraces the miracle that is midwinter.

For me running december means I get to look back at runs I ran accompanied my the love of my life, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone. Some runs good, some bad. Each and every year I hang up the medals earned that year as a reminder to myself. Why? it's easy to focus on all the things that didn't work out, all the things you'd wish had gone differently. It's easy to let grieve linger, let pain remain and to hold on to grudges. December however is the time of year to come full circle, to just sit in a chair and look around the friends and family you have and to be grateful for everything that 2019 has brought you.

Medals are moments frozen in time, memories to good times with beautiful people that make you  laugh, who are there for you when you cry and those are the people that you need to gather around this time of year. Make it your priority to see them, to thank them and if running is your thing, like it is mine, than why not organize a run. Make it a turkey trot or a jumper run. Gather your loved ones, run a few miles, create an amazing medal to remember the day, pick a charity and go the extra mile and make it a fundraiser, create lasting memories.

For me the very last day of the year starts with a run and after that run I always check the miles I ran in that year and than I get to bask in the glory of all those medals and all those miles because whatever happened; I ran those miles, I earned those medals and that was all me. I did that and nobody can ever take that away from me. Ever.  For me those medals are a reminder that
1. I am good enough
2. I don't need to fit in, I need to belong
3. I am worth it
4. I am strong and capable
5. I am and therefore I run

So whatever december is about for you, make sure you take just one moment to calm down and really look around you. You are loved. Everything you need is already here. Just put a little love in your heart.

That's it for now, until we read again
as always
Love Marlies

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