Quotes to Live By

Don’t you just love surprises? The kind that totally catch you off guard and make you smile all day long?

A couple of weekends ago, on an early Saturday morning, I headed off for my regular run. My running partner, Ericka S., was out of town, so I was on my own this particular day. Hooked in to my iPhone, listening to the first track of my running songs, I rounded the corner of my cul-de-sac and headed to the main thoroughfare to begin the trek up my hill. I had gone about 10 strides from my corner when I noticed a Post-it Note on the sidewalk.

“Darn junior high kids; always leaving their trash at the bus stop,” was my first thought.

A few more strides and another paper with its short message caught my eye. Continuing on, I found yet another one, this time on the grass that lined the sidewalk. Then it occurred to me: somebody had purposely written and dropped these little papers for someone, like me, to find. I back tracked to the original note and paid better attention to what lay before me. Seven individual notes strewn along my path, (on the sidewalk, on the grass, in a bush) each with a word or two of optimism and encouragement:

These little morsels reminded me of long ago when I used to write similar notes and put them in my kids’ lunches and backpacks. Just a little something to let them know I was thinking of them and rooting for them.

At first, I thought another mom was carrying out that same tradition with her son or daughter. But upon closer inspection, the writing appeared to me to be more along the lines of teenage scribble. Which then led me to consider: could it be possible that this was the work of some thoughtful teenager?. Perhaps it was intended for a special friend on the last day of school.  Or maybe, that person just wanted to surprise someone — like me — and remind them of life’s simple pleasures.  Well, if it was the latter motive, it totally worked on me. I continued on my run with a smile on my face, reflecting on those little words of wisdom.

The last note I found summed up this little exercise:

Whomever dropped those notes, did exactly that by sharing these quotes to live by.

Do you have a favorite quote to live by?

Read more from Caryn on her blog, The Midlife Guru

All images courtesy Caryn The Midlife Guru.