A bat dive-bombed my head twice this morning.

I think it was the same bat….in the darkness, it looked like the same bat.

He came down fast and did a fly-by…..and then I didn’t see him again after the second time.

It’s pretty dark in the morning when I run.

I’m sure that it must have been kind of confusing for him….seeing/hearing/sonoring me out there, plodding along.

I think that he must have been thinking something like, “What is that? It’s too fast for walking….too slow for anything else. What is that?!”

I don’t really know what a bat thinks.

I don’t know what my kids are thinking, most of the time.

I ran out and back this morning….kind of a change after only walking the hills on the way back for a week.

I noticed that the hills seem to get shorter every day.

Maybe they don’t get shorter…..maybe I’m just getting more used to them.

That’s the way it goes….something is pretty uncomfortable…like running up a hill….and then it either gets easier as you live with it for a while….or you just get used to being uncomfortable.

Maybe it’s all just callous building up?

I don’t really know.

It is kind of interesting how hard things make us stronger.

We could have been designed with a finite limit to the amount of “wear and tear” we could take.

We might go to the doctor early on and he’d tell us, “What were you doing? Outside playing again?! Well….it looks like you’re pretty close to being used up….worn away….you’re in the red zone. You better take it pretty easy the rest of your life….you won’t get a chance to make it right….you better WATCH OUT. No stress….no play….no hard work or conflict or it’s going to be all over for you. You should have planned ahead a little better. I’m sorry to have to tell you that.”

Those are harsh words for a five-year old to have to hear.

But instead, the conflict makes us stronger….if it doesn’t break us in two.

Resistance.

In weight training, what makes you stronger is the tearing and healing, tearing and healing…over and over.

You work a muscle, you tear the muscle a little, the muscle heals (hopefully)….and you get stronger.

That’s a crazy process….you have to tear it all down to build it back stronger.

Now….”too much” isn’t a good thing.

You can overtrain and spoil the whole process.

There has to be some balance….rest and work, repeat, rest and work, repeat…..etc.

But….we need something to push against to make us stronger.

That’s an amazing thing….that we have a store of resiliency that builds on itself….whether we’re aware of it or not.

We’re stronger than we think.

These hills that I’m running are getting shorter.

The reason they’re getting shorter is because I’m running them again.

I guess that I should learn to be thankful for the tearing…..AND the healing.

It’s a two-part process….thank goodness for both of them.