This Is Why We Are Here

In a world filled with choices, which direction do you choose?  Question of the day, one I've been pondering.  Do we move abroad?  Do I further my education?  Do we travel the world?  Do I seek a career?  Do I live a life of wandering creativity?  Do I tend dutifully to my family, putting their needs above my own?  Do I strive to make a name for myself?  Live a humble existence?
And when to do these things! If ever.  Can I have it all?

I'm reminded of Tolstoy's Three Questions:
When is the best time to do things?
Who is the most important one?
What is the right thing to do?

Tolstoy believed:
"There is only one important time, and that time is now.  The most important one is always the one you are with.  And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side.  These are the answers to what is most important in this world."

Right.

I've been thinking ahead to what's next as I came to the end of my marathon training today.  There was a huge sense of accomplishment in concluding with the shortest scheduled run of all my training - a 3 km jaunt - that is actually the distance at which my unofficial training began, about two years ago, soon after Penelope was born, when I started to run again.  Those runs, post-baby, were slow, and exhausting, but man did they feel good.  I didn't know what exact purpose those runs would serve then, but I knew running felt good, and that those jogs were the beginning of my training for something.  Over a year later, I announced to family around the Sunday dinner table I was going to run a marathon.  I roped Dan into it, too.  And that is exactly how I feel, a perfect analogy, for the rest of my life at the moment.  I know I am training, writing, for something, but I am just not exactly sure for what yet.

This is the beauty of freedom and choice; this is why we are here.