Call me crazy, but for me, buying a new pair of running shoes is like buying a new lease on life. The squishy, bouncy, brand-newness of new sneakers seems to defy gravity and seep upward into my body with energy and vigor.

Today I am experiencing such wonder. The box arrived the other day and sat with a sparkle on our front porch. I was giddy like a child at Christmas as I ran out to fetch it and tore off the packaging. New shoes!! And for a good deal, even better!!  As I put them on today, to say that life has returned to my beat-up, sleep-deprived, postpartum body is an understatement. I am instead a hopeful, getting there, almost-6-week-postpartum, almost-running woman, ready to conquer the day’s challenges.

The old sneaks were gems, I tell you, but they were worn out pups. No tread, little cushion, orthotic stains, with old races a very distant memory. It was time.  And so today marks the beginning of a new shoe journey, ripe with possibility.

Each day, each step, we’re getting there… With these shoes I will race up and down the stairs to soothe the cries of my little one as she falls asleep. I will bounce up and down as the boys as I dance to the Wiggles and laugh excessively. These shoes will carry me as we walk my oldest on his first day of kindergarten.  They will escort my crew and me as we venture out and take on the world, five strong.  I will use them to re-discover my athletic self in the coming weeks.  I will elliptical and lunge and stride my way to greater strength and fitness.  They will work tirelessly to comfort and support over miles and days and terrain… to deliver me to a new place many months from now that will look very different from today.  A good different, hopefully better and with more sleep! They hold much promise.

Thank you, dear Lord, for my new shoes.  I praise You today for this very trivial thing; for it is in the little things that we can find great joy.