But, anyway

Most mornings I go for a run around the Panmure Basin.

All this week I spotted a bunch white lilies growing wildly among the bush on an embankment that I run past each morning.

Every day as a passed the lilies I started thinking that I should stop, climb up the embankment, pick the flowers and bring them home to my wife, as I was sure she would quite like the gesture – and certainly loves being surprised with a bunch of flowers!

However, each time I managed to talk myself out of doing so. First, I thought, I was at a crucial stage in my run and stopping then would break my stride and mess around with my runtimes.

Also, this point of the route was around two kilometres from home, so I felt it would be awkward running that distance with a bunch of lilies in hand.

Plus, I had nothing to cut the stalks with – from what I know about lilies, you can’t just yank them out of the ground or pick them like daisies!

My final reason for not stopping was that I was under time pressure. I run before I head off to work, so any delay in finishing the run would make me late, along with the aforementioned wife since we travel to work together.

And so each morning I would run by those lilies and squash my inkling to perform a little gesture that someone I love would really appreciate – but that’s OK, I told myself, because I had a set of solid and logical reasons to back up my decision.

Of course in the end I realised I was being ridiculous. That none of these so-called reasons were really big enough to stop me from taking at most five minutes to pick those flowers.

So this morning I set out on a mission to return with the lilies.

As it turned out, they were gone. Someone else beat me to them to brighten the day of their loved one.

Isn’t it curious how often in our busy lives we do this? An idea suddenly pops into our heads to do something special and meaningful for someone we love – or sometimes someone we don’t even know – but then our reason and reservation jump in and extinguish that little spark.

It is easy to get so wrapped up in our work and daily commitments, that we can come up with plenty of excuses for not stopping and taking time out to devote that little bit of extra effort and attention to our loved ones – be it making time in a busy day to have lunch with our partner, friend or family member or taking five minutes to call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, or simply stopping to pick those wild flowers.

But there are countless reasons for doing so.

After all, each tiny gesture of affection and kindness is another drop of glue that binds your love stronger.

Tags: Auckland, Exercise, Relationships, running

This entry was posted on 05/10/2012 at 11:16 am and is filed under Relationships, That's Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.