A State of Mind

Make your state of mind more important than what you are doing... I read this line yesterday and it held residence in my thoughts all day. I went for an early morning run downtown and there was nothing but my feet on the pavement, no one but the occasional bum, and the starkness of buildings and doors and intersections magnified by the absence of bodies. Part of Locust Street was closed so I ran right down the heart of the road--I've always had a strange affinity for being in the middle of streets one can usually only drive on as there's a certain intimacy there in seeing all the oil spots and cracks and bumps up close and the sidewalks and buildings out of reach. I ran to the river and stood there sinking my eyes into the horizon--the sun rising over the capital building, the ribbon of its' light drawing a line across the water to me. I vowed to carry that image with me the rest of the day. Later on I took my kids to a parade. Then they worked on hauling dirt for a landscaping project with their father. He took them swimming and then I took them to see fireworks. We sat in the back of my father's truck on a country road--the best kind of view. And that statement about holding an important state of mind was like a bell chiming over and over. To hear their exaltation's over every flair of light, and even the fireflies blinking across fields and cats streaking through the dark and kids with sparklers, was to think they were on top of the world. Both kids kept shouting: this is the best day ever! Kids sense and connect to the world wholly don't they? Their state of mind always more felt and important than what they're doing.