It occurred to me today that sometimes we’re going uphill and sometimes we’re going downhill.

Have you ever noticed that those two phrases both mean trouble? The uphill battle? The downhill that comes after you are over-the-hill? Or, when things are headed downhill?

From a running perspective, I can tell you that downhill is better than uphill.

I’ve been running now, on and off, for a few years (let’s say five). During that time, there have been ups and downs, highs and lows. Times when I’ve been proud of where I’m at, in my journey as a runner, and other times when I’ve been ashamed of having dropped the ball.

In the summer and fall of 2016, I  got to the place where I was running a lot every week, consistently over a few months. I was proud to be getting back in good health, for the first time probably in my adult life.

In the Spring of 2018, I was on a run and my ankles got tangled up in some metal wire lying at the side of the street where I was running, and I went down like a sack of potatoes. That injury knocked me off of the running wagon for months. Dropped the ball.

This year, I swore I was going to average a mile a day for the whole year (366 miles by the end of 2020). So far, knock on wood, I’m on track to do so (actually, I’m on track for many more miles than that, but we’ll see).

***

This morning, as I was just setting out on my favorite route, I passed someone I know (which isn’t hard in a town of five thousand people). She said, “Doing good!”, or something like that, as I was passing by. I ended up thinking about her a lot as I continued my run.

You see, the first quarter-mile of my route heads down a hill, and this morning, as I passed this person that I know, I was mere yards away from my house, mere yards into my run. And, during this first quarter-mile of my run, heading down hill, there’s really very little work to do. Gravity does a lot of the work for me as I head down that hill.

My friend, on the other hand, was headed in the opposite direction, headed up the hill near my house. The argument could easily be made that she was doing more work climbing up the hill than I was doing headed down the hill.

This friend of mine, a very positive person, was just being congratulatory, and here I am, reading far too much into it. I don’t think I would have very many blog posts to write if I didn’t reading too much into a lot of things.

So, here’s what I came up with.

My run this morning, during which this friend of mine saw me for maybe fifteen seconds (if that), was a sixty-two minute run. That means that this friend of mine was a witness to .4% of my run. To put it another way: if you divided my entire run up into one thousand pieces of time, this friend of mine only saw four of those and missed the other 996. So, while I am sure I looked really strong and capable at the point where my friend saw me, there were plenty of other times when I didn’t look strong during the run.

So, what does that mean?

Those snapshots that we get of each other when we have an opportunity to get a look into each other’s lives, that’s exactly what they are –> snapshots. If someone had seen me this morning at the end of mile two, when I was winded and stiff and walking, rather than running, they probably would not have been as impressed with me as that friend of mine this morning, who saw me before I even got the chance to start sweating.

When you see someone who’s been knocked down, understand that they haven’t always been down –> this person has had higher points in their life and are just in a rough patch. Conversely, that person that you know that seems to be on a winning streak hasn’t always been on top of the world –> that person has had their own low points.

The only person who knows your whole story is you (and maybe one or two of the closest people in your life). Therefore, they are the only people who have grounds to say anything about your story as a whole. When the people who would judge you want to say how low you are, they don’t know about how solid everything was just a little earlier, and they probably won’t stick around long enough to see you rise up again. When people who would judge you want to say how wonderful things are for you, they don’t know how bad it just was, a little earlier, and they probably won’t stick around long enough to be by your side when the bad times come again.

Discard all negative commentary from the outside world –> they don’t know your story.

Covet any encouragement that you might get, from anyone who is willing to add their sunshine to your world; that particular gem is becoming rarer by the day, it seems.