This morning I’m strangely, incongruously happy.  That’s a good place to start.  I feel like I’m in the very early planning stages of a long around-the-world trip – that first anticipatory excitement that Some Big Adventure Is On The Way, and it’s just a matter of time before you board the flight and take off for parts unknown.  Literally: unknown.  Close my eyes and throw darts at a map.  Not knowing whether to pick up the Spanish-, Japanese-, or Tongan-to-English dictionary.  I know where I would prefer to go, what I would like to see printed on my boarding pass, but at this point everything is up in the air.

Do you remember, as kids, when you’d play checkers or chess and your move wasn’t “for real” until you took your fingers off the piece?  So you’d make your move, then rethink, have second thoughts, dilly-dally, all the while keeping one stretched-out index finger in contact.  Then, with a flourish, you’d remove your hand.  I feel a bit like that right now.  I courageously (or stupidly?)  moved my King out from safety, took my fingers from his crown, and now am waiting to see what White will do in response.  In an abstract way of thinking, it doesn’t matter what the counter-move is; in another, very real sense, everything depends on it.  It’s the difference between thinking things are going to be OK someday vs. that things are going to be better soon.

I spent a toss-and-turn night in bed and got very little sleep, but feel refreshed this morning anyway.  Outlook and perspective makes all the difference.  Did I move my King too soon?  Should I have moved my King at all?  Should I have retreated back behind the wall of pawns?  It’s all sort of moot at this point. I feel good about my move, no matter the result.

I ended up getting up about 4:30 and got to the gym about 10 minutes before they opened.  I ran 4+ miles on the treadmill, enough to sweat and move and breathe and feel alive, but not so much that I’m tired.

Today should be fairly relaxed, work-wise: our team is ahead of schedule; my side projects are going well; and it’s Friday.  Yay!  Still have no idea as of this moment what the weekend might hold.  We’ll see.

Hope you’re having a great morning yourself, dear reader.