There’s nothing good about winter. If you try to convince me otherwise I’ll just disagree and tell you that you’re wrong, because I just said there’s nothing good about winter. So don’t tell me sledding, and hot chocolate, and snowball fights, and cozy blankets.Those are just the lies we tell ourselves to justify not moving to someplace warmer.Of all the sucky things about winter, perhaps the suckiest is the horrid discomfort we endure every time we’re dumb enough to leave a heated building. Whether it’s walking twenty feet from our house to our car (where we get to freeze until it warms up), or doing something outside that actually requires us to leave warmth for more than a few seconds, I’m sure I’m not the only person silently—or loudly—cursing.However, I had a world-changing premonition the other day, and I have the cold to thank for it.It came to me in a parking lot. My wife and I were leaving a store, walking to the car, when she suddenly decided she wanted to go into the adjacent store. “Let’s go over here,” she said, while turning her back to me, and taking off in a sprint.
I thought we were going to the car, and she took off so fast, that by the time I realized she wasn’t next to me she was already thirty feet away. I turned toward her and walked a few steps, but she kept running, and I didn’t want to be left behind, so I started running, too.As we ran across the parking lot, and then along the sidewalk to the adjacent store, I thought, “People who just see a woman running away from some dude probably think I’m trying to rob her or attack her.”Luckily no one with an itchy trigger finger mistook me for a criminal, so I caught up to my wife without being pumped full of lead.But as we walked into the store I wondered why two people running through a parking lot should look unusual at all. Let’s ignore the question of whether I looked like a shady criminal. Whether passersby thought I was some ne’er-do-well or just a guy trying to keep up with my wife, I’m sure they thought we looked kind of silly running in a situation where almost everyone else walks.It shouldn’t be that way though. Everyone should run. Everywhere. All the time.Think about the last little kid you saw. Like a kid between just learning to walk, and five or six years old. Chances are that kid ran more than he or she walked.Kids love to run. From the time they’re staggering around on unsure footing, little kids are anxious to run. My four-year-old daughter frequently runs from room-to-room so effortlessly that I’m certain she isn’t even thinking about it.Yet, I didn’t see anyone except for my wife and me running in that parking lot. I’ve been paying attention to parking lots in the six days since then, and guess how many runners I’ve seen? Zero.So what happened between the time when we just learned to walk and now?I’ll tell you what happened. Someone said, “Slow down.” As in, “Slow down, you’ll trip!” Or “Slow down, the living room isn’t a playground.” Or “Slow down, no running in the house.”Well no wonder kids stop running. Those damn adults always go and ruin it for them. And take it from an adult who runs for fun: as soon as you stop running regularly, it becomes much more difficult to start running regularly.Imagine if we didn’t ruin it though. We might all run! All the time. Everystinkin’where!If we encouraged kids to continue running, you might never see another sullen teenager walk to the waiting bus while you sit behind the wheel of your car and wonder if he could walk any slower. Your mailman might deliver the mail to your door hours sooner than he does now. You’d be able to sleep five minutes longer in the morning because you’d cut your walking commute time in half.And don’t forget about the health benefits! Studies show that just 30 seconds of all-out exercise can do wonders for your health. Could we see drastic reductions in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and crankiness if everyone did a few 30 second sprints every single day of their lives?I know, I know. You’re thinking, “I can’t run.” And you might be right. But that’s because you don’t run. You haven’t run in a long time. But what if you’d ran every single day since you learned to walk? I bet then you’d be able to run.And I bet you’d feel better than you do right now.Don’t believe me? Well, I was right about winter wasn’t I?PREVIOUS POST: 2015 Will be my Year of Doing WithoutIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: What I'm Thinking about When I'm Running+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Well, well, well. Look who's not running right now. That's right, it's you! Since you're not running anyway, how about you Share it on Facebook so you can bring joy to others. You can also find tons of other posts by me here. And you can like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes. Please.
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