Yesterday, it rained.

Every morning I drive straight up Cesar Chavez. Due east, but usually past the point of being blinded by the rising sun.

As I make my way downtown, I typically see a horde of folk running up and down the trails that line the lake. Some are slow and others are clearly training for some sort of race as they weave along the shoreline. I’m over here struggling to keep my eyes from closing in the driver’s seat and these people are logging mile after mile long before I have even found my heartbeat for the day.

That’s the scene usually; but, not yesterday. Yesterday was different. Yesterday it rained. Yesterday I saw only a single soul out on the trail. All the others had disappeared with the sun and for some reason I became disheartened.

It rained all night and continued through the morning. I walked to my car at a quicker than average pace in an attempt to keep too many droplets from landing on my sport coat. I didn’t have an umbrella. It’s one of those things I always say I should buy, but never think to until I need it. By then, it’s too late.

Since yesterday I have bought an umbrella and more rain has fallen. I hear it thumping away on my porch now. Soon, the sun will begin to slip up Cesar Chavez and it makes me wonder. Will anyone be out there running?

My guess is no.

I’m not a betting man, but if I was, that’s where my money would be. Why? Because I know all too well, how little obstacles cast big shadows on our dreams; how a commitment shrinks into an option in the face of adversity. I get how “I will.” becomes “I will…tomorrow.”

I understand how the runners feel when it rains.

I too have a tendency to push off what I have committed to do when the day doesn’t want to cooperate. I too feel the pull calling me to bed when I should be working my craft. I too look at certain to-dos and decide today just isn’t the ideal day. I too let things as silly as falling water keep me from my commitments.

But not today. Today is different. I cannot speak for tomorrow. I can control myself today. I can commit to my commitments and not let them go.

I have sold dreams for a few dollars before. More than once in fact. It still stings a bit and I’m not proud of it, but I have. That’s likely why the lack of runners yesterday saddened me. Not all, but some for sure get up in the morning to chase down a dream out there on the trail. Yesterday, though, they didn’t. I get it’s only one day. That is precisely the tragedy in it all. A life is made of days and days are made of decisions. Each one counts and it only takes a few to create a pattern.

I for one get nervous at the thought of showing up on my last day only to realize I held to a pattern of failing to show up.