Cause to Pause: Reflector Strips

Today I am grateful for anti-lock brakes and traction control on icy mornings. I am also grateful for the honest sharing of other women in recovery.

This is the time of year that I will sometimes start an A-Z blog series, or as I did last year, a Z-A one. This year I have a different inspiration hitting me. Dark and light. They are so symbolic in emotional, mental, and spiritual terms. And they are also physical. As the physical light grows shorter and shorter each day until the winter solstice, darkness closes in literally.

There has been darkness in other ways this year. Pain. Suffering. Addiction. Loss. Suicide. Cancer. Death. If not for light, hope would be hard to come by. Getting out of bed would be more of a challenge. So I pledge to use these last weeks of this challenging year of 2017 to blog about the dark and the light, about how they play off of each other and are necessary. What about dark and light will cause me to pause?

Light can come with the flip of a switch for a lamp or overhead light. It can come with prayer and pausing to acknowledge gratitude. It can come from reflector strips on this running vest too. I wore this on my short pre-dawn run Monday.


It was 55 degrees and "balmy" by December's standards. I ran in short sleeves. I took time for the run partly because the warm weather was winding down. And wind down it did. We woke up yesterday morning to snow on the ground and a wind chill of 5 degrees. Gotta love the changing seasons, even when it happens in less than 24 hours.

Anyway, the reflector strips are for my safety and the safety of others. They also identify me as a non-criminal in the early morning hours. Others driving by or out on foot themselves can identify me as a fairly reasonable person because I took the time to put this vest on. Those who are up to no good usually don't want to be easily spotted.

Reflector strips work when light shines on them. They reflect light back. That is what I can do today. Be a light for others and myself. Reflect back the good that is shown me. Onward!

Comments