Unchosen companions

On Monday morning one of my colleagues read a reflection giving consideration to the fact that many of those we spend our time with are not specifically chosen by us.

Today I ran another 9 miles, 3 miles earlier in the week and 16 last week. Not quite the 20 a week I am aiming for but a start (when do such things stop being 'a start?') I am delighted to say that Sharon has recovered from her minor op and all is well, so today we ran together. When it comes to running Sharon is my unchosen companion.

Well that is true and it is not. Today may be the first time ever that she has struggled to keep up with me. This is a first, and I reckon, may be a last. She will soon be fit again and once again I will be trailing in her footsteps complaining and moaning about the pain and 'are we nearly there yet?'

I say unchosen because although we decided to choose to run together on Friday mornings I would have liked to have been able to choose someone slower, someone whom I could run with but run within myself. Running with Sharon is difficult, I have to put more effort in, I want to keep up and keep going. Running with Sharon has been hard for me but it has started (notice the 'started' again)to make me a better runner. She never moans about having to slow down for me either.

Whilst on holiday last week I read a really interesting book by Sally Vickers 'The other side of you', it is a tale of an encounter between a failed suicide and her psychiatrist; neither 'chooses' the company of the other. Together they recount shared experiences and recollect their encounter with Caravaggio's 'Supper at Emmaus' and the presence of a shared stranger, another 'unchosen companion'. In the book and on the Emmaus road the recollections lead to a new understanding and renewed hope in living life.

So today I am so glad that Sharon is running with me again, I am determined to keep up with her. I am also so glad for those I journey with in various aspects of my life: family, friends, colleagues, my disciple group, church friends, travelling together, often unchosen. Sometimes the journeying is pleasurable and easy, other times fraught and difficult yet, it seems, always worthwhile and invariably with something to share.