Commitment

com·mit·ment 

–noun

1. the act of committing.
2. the state of being committed.
3. the act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself.
4. a pledge or promise; obligation: 
5. engagement; involvement: 
6. perpetration or commission, as of a crime.
7. consignment, as to prison.
8. confinement to a mental institution or hospital:
9. an order, as by a court or judge, confining a person to a mental institution or hospital.
10. Law . a written order of a court directing that someone be confined in prison; mittimus.
11. Parliamentary Procedure . the act of referring or entrusting to a committee for consideration.
12. Stock Exchange .
a. an agreement to buy or sell securities.
b. a sale or purchase of securities.

I reflect on this word today.  The 264th day of my running streak.  

With tonight's run, I will have ran 264 miles for the month

As Dictionary.com defines commitment I wonder how often we forget a few points of it's definition.

No.  I am not talking about the confinement to a mental institution or a court order.  We all may be able to identify with those definitions from time to time. 

I am talking about engaging oneself and involvement.

How often do we simply go through the routine or schedule of our days and not truly engage with our families and friends?  How often are you guilty of simply putting in the miles and not enjoying the act of running?  Isn't that why we are doing this?  Because we enjoy it?

It goes for all areas in our lives, how often do we sit done for a meal and not even taste what we are eating, not really listen to our kids telling us the hundreds of things they ramble on about...

I am sure we would all say that we are committed to our families, our friends, our jobs, our running but are we remembering that part of the commitment is to engage oneself?

As we head into another weekend of long runs and races, let's all remember to fully honor those commitments, to engage ourselves completely.  Perhaps in doing so we will have our journey slightly sweeter, more amazing, anything but ordinary every single day.