every day is a good day

today was team in training saturday run, week 3. we did 6 miles (48.17) in the quaint little area around ne 33rd near grant track. i had the pleasure of running with a gentleman named bob jordan, who lost his 5 1/2 year old daughter to leukemia about 13 years ago.

before our run, bob and his wife spoke about the moment they took their daughter to the doctor, presumably for a cold, and heard her diagnosis. they talked about the hospital visits, the chemo, the cute little things their daughter did that they have burned into their memories.

for example, i learned that bob has done 33 marathons and 13 (?) ironman triathlons. one of his major goals was to qualify for the hawaii ironman. apparently they have a lottery system, so bob was going that route to get in. around the time of his birthday, he applied. his daughter wanted to get him a present and knew that the only thing he wanted at the time (aside from her getting better, of course) was to qualify. so, with the help of bob's wife, little emily drafted a letter explaining that she was in the hospital and why, and that she wanted to give her dad the one thing he wanted most - a spot in the hawaii ironman. what committee can resist that? bob obviously got a spot in the 1997 event. however, little emily went into a coma and died 4 days later. this was six months out from the event, so he poured his heart into his training and was actually featured on cbs news with this wonderful human interest story. what a great gift from his late daughter.

(read the story on the ironman website here)

but i must say that for all bob has been through, he is the most positive man i have ever met. you know what he said to me today?

"since we last saw emily and last walked out of that hospital, i have vowed that every day is going to be a good day. i can't have another bad day, because i know what a bad day is really like."

i think that is an incredibly amazing perspective and goes along with the first post that i put on my blog - start really living, we're really dying. we are not on this earth for very long. the things that we think are worth getting all bent out of shape about really aren't worth getting bent out of shape at all. who cares about traffic jams, financial issues, having to get up for work on a monday morning, not having anything to wear... whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

what matters is that we are healthy, we have a support system of friends and family, we have jobs, we have a roof over our heads and food in our fridge. we have a lot of things that many, many people in life simply don't have.

my goal for my life is to live like bob -
every day is a good day.