All about me

Or that's what this post would have been about if I'd written it anytime in the last few days. Regular readers might have noticed I've been a bit quiet recently. Truth be told I've been rather unhappy and unhealthily self absorbed about it. I resisted the urge to bore you all with it. Or more accurately, I was unhappy to even bring myself to write about it.

And before you start worrying, there's nothing wrong. Nothing happened. No crises. No particular change. I was just down.

But this post isn't going to be about me. It's going to be about not me. It's going to be about other people. Other people I know who are dealing with stuff, not necessarily successfully all the time and not necessarily stoically and with self assurance. But dealing. Getting on. Surviving. And I think they're awesome.

My widowed friend, turning her life upside down again to follow her heart. My former work colleague battling an illness the doctors can't quite understand and certainly haven't managed to treat yet. A current work colleague facing up to the fears of a loved one heading into danger. People I don't know in Japan and Libya and Syria trying to live their lives in amongst unimaginable turmoil and personal disaster. Other people I don't know living their lives closer to home, coping with the scars of modern day Britain in the world of the have nots.

All these people have reason to be down, sad, unhappy, angry, hurt, lost, lonely, hopeless. I'm not saying that I don't - it just seems of a different degree. Makes you think really.

And as for the photo - yes, that is the colour I was. No photoshopping involved. I'd just finished my longest ever run (7.25 miles) as I continue to work towards my (crazy) marathon goal. It's not a pretty sight, that's for sure. But boy, did it feel good!! Probably for the first time I didn't think that completing the marathon was such an impossible challenge. And I could still walk the next day too. Amazing!