I was giving myself a pep talk while on a run today.

You got this. You are more than those baskets of dirty laundry. You are more than the cleaner of the toilets. You have things to contribute. You make a difference. You are important to people. You can run. Sort of. See? You got this. — That kind of thing.

I was just finishing up, in the final stretch to the car, when out of nowhere (really, across four lanes of traffic) I heard someone yell, “WOOOO!” and I looked over and a guy who was also running, waved. After checking behind me and realized that his shout-out was for me, I smiled (or more like showed as many teeth as possible while trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible) and waved back.

A cat call? Maybe? No. It felt more like an enthusiastic cheer of encouragement. My friend Brigette says her husband cheers on people like that when it looks like they are struggling, which would have been pretty darn accurate. In any case, I received it with gratitude and was feeling pretty good about life, as I should…

So I just wanted to pass that “WOOOO!” on to all of you today.

You are important. You are doing good work. I appreciate you and I bet many others do too.

And P.S. Tomorrow is Friday. So there’s that. xo