John and I live in the middle of suburbia. The epitome of suburbia. It really really can’t get more suburban than where we live. Lots of houses that all look the same, lots of people driving the same kinds of cars along all the same streets to take the same long commute to get to work and back. When I go for a run in the morning, I’m running by the early-risers and long lines of cars. There’s one stretch behind the high school where I run in the scraggly grass with the road on my right and the baseball field on my left, and usually I focus on the gradual uphill climb and uneven ground. The other day I noticed little purple flowers lining the worn path in the grass, lots of little purple flowers, and for just a few seconds, I could ignore the cars zooming by 8 feet to my right and pretend I was running in a mountain meadow full of wildflowers. It was a nice daydream, even if it didn’t last long.
A couple of days later, I spent a few minutes talking to a trail runner about where he runs and how to get there. I may end up hating running on uneven ground (or where there may be snakes and other unpleasant things), but it’s something I’d like to try. I think.