When Duty Calls

My family is currently in the midst of a whirlwind trip down to Florida.  We decided to squeeze in visits to both my parents and my husband's parents, who happen to live at opposite end of the state, with a short jaunt through Disney World in between the two, all in one week.  I'm not quite sure what we were thinking when we booked our trip but at the time it seemed like a brilliant idea.  I have been eagerly awaiting this quality time with my girls as well as to catch up with both sets of parents.  I have to admit, however, that I was a little stressed about how to fit in my last little bit of training for the marathon that I'm running in May.  For the first few days of our trip I had no problem making it work.  I was able to get up early and out the door before the girls were up and ready to go.  I knew, however, that when we got to Disney, there was going to be an issue as our time was limited and my running was not really part of the itinerary.  As we were checking in on Tuesday afternoon, I was still telling myself that I might be able to pull it all off.  We were having breakfast with the princesses the next morning, but perhaps I could get up early for a run and still make it to the castle on time.  I even went so far as to ask the front desk if there was an official Disney running path that I could use.  "Oh yes!" she said excitedly.  Then she handed me a small map that showed Mickey Mouse in running shoes, jogging around a dotted path of .97 miles.  Hmmm.  I decided I would just not worry about it and figure it out the next day.  So, off we went to the park for some major Disney fun.  Three hours later my head was reminding me that I still had to wake up early and run while my legs were telling me there was no chance in hell that they were actually going to do this.  By the time we got to bed, all four of us in one room, I was coming to terms with the fact that my run was simply not going to happen.  At that point, I was so tired that it didn't really matter.  When we woke up I said, to no one in particular, "well....I couldn't get my run in and that's ok."  Then the girls and I wondered out loud whether the princesses that we were about to dine with ever went running before breakfast.  To which I said, "they very well might want to, but when duty calls, they have no choice in the matter."  I'm no princess, but that morning, my duty as a mother called and I, too, had no choice in the matter.  And that is always as it should be.

Listen to this:
Love Today - Mika