" It was just a building"

It was just a building and the final section of her fell not that long ago. A building, it's war torn carcass that had become a sad visual reminder on my runs. A reminder of a war in the form of mother nature and her EF-5 tornado. It was just a building ...

I knew that building as a little girl. From mom's station wagon as very young child, my little green eyes would stare up at the building . My little red head would think, "I'm gonna work in that big hospital one day." That building was SO BIG in my small world.

I knew that building as a young woman. I was just nineteen when I entered her walls to learn to become a nurse. I was in that big building now. I had a big red head now (some might say huge). I was going to learn to become a nurse in that building. It was just a building ...

I knew that building as a big sister. Again, just nineteen, my MOM was pregnant (that's a whole OTHER blog) and we welcomed baby Jillian in that building. I was in clinicals that day. I was learning to become a nurse in that building. I heard the music, the lullaby they always play. I remember excitedly proclaiming the birth of my new sibling and running away from clinicals to meet her. It occurs to me only now how strange the situation must have appeared to my instructors.

I knew that building as a very young nurse. I dreamed of a critical care job and watched the helicopter land time after time, all from a break room window in that building. I decided I would work in her ICU and fly in her helicopter one day and I did. I worked countless hours, attended countless classes, made numerous friends and acquaintances, fell in love and lived, actually lived for twenty four hours at a time in that building. It was just a building ...

I knew that building as a runner. In my earliest running days I logged countless miles on the track just east of the building. As my running progressed, I ran farther from her but I could always see her on the run back home. Her bathrooms and water fountains saved me on a run or two. Silly as it may seem, her presence was a strange comfort.

I knew that building as she died. I saw her through the stunned green eyes of a now grown woman on the night of her death. There may have been some hope at first, could we save her? In the end we could not, she was to broken. She was just a building...

She is not just a building. She's a centerpiece in the table of my life. She is a symbol. A symbol of strength. She all but refused to come down. They worked for MONTHS to finish what an EF-5 tornado could not finish. She is an example of how we can build our life, watch it flourish and watch it's destruction. Yet, if we are to keep living, with God guiding our ever SO WEAK steps we rebuild again. Whatever our path has been, whatever mountains and valleys we've had to conquer and endure. We build, we live, we flourish (we hope), we survive destruction, we rebuild.

She's not there when I run anymore. That is WAY weird. I will get used to that right? After all, she was just a building ...

Find your running.