Ivan Fernandez Anaya, Spanish Runner, restored my faith in this world!

This morning a friend came over for coffee and we sat outside on the patio surrounded by nothing but green and a mild wind that swayed my beautiful wind chime back and forth making it sing and ring a soothing sound. I considered myself lucky to live in Southern California knowing the hard cold winter spreading on the East Coast where the majority of my family lives.


I enjoyed the company and the moment, feeling relaxed, something I had not been in a while with all the negativity, bad news, horrifying events that had transpired the last couple of months. It took me a while to find strength again and believe in goodness, but I still find myself crying out of blue, any place, any time when my thoughts deeply go in the direction of those families who lost their children in that unthinkable massacre. The shootings have not stopped, they still occurre in cities, and certain neighborhoods, gang related mostly, and children become the victims once again. Why, one more shooting just posted on my yahoo news as I am writing this blog, this one happened in Texas. 

I pray, somehow I still have faith, or I feel I should from fear that I might collapse if I didn't. I pray for those parents to find peace and the ability to go on in this life. A life that has gone bad, rotten, decaying...

We sat and talked about movies to distract ourselves, an hazelnut coffé latté was soothing, so were the birds' twitting, but the pain of these sad stories and their images still linger. We should never forget those victims, yet the weight on our heart is so heavy - how to fight evil in this world? It almost leaves you feeling helpless to think about it, but you know you should - and then my friend told me of a post she had seen on facebook. She told the story of the Spanish Runner:
Last month, Spanish athlete Ivan Fernandez Anaya impressed the world by giving up victory to do the right thing. According to El Pais, it happened as the 24-year-old raced a cross-country event in Burlada, Navarre on Dec. 2. 
In second place to Abel Mutai, the Kenyan athlete who won a bronze medal in the London Olympics, Anaya suddenly had a chance to surge ahead. According to El Pais, Mutai mistakenly thought the end of the race came about 10 meters sooner than it did, and stopped running. 
Then, he “looked back and saw the people telling him to keep going," Anaya told CNA. "But since he doesn't speak Spanish he didn't realize it."
So Anaya slowed, guiding Mutai to the actual finish line. 
The runner had commented later:
  
'I didn't deserve to win it. I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn't have closed if he hadn't made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him.' 
His actions may not have won him the match, or the approval of his coach, but they did get him a few new fans.
My friend told the story with tears in her eyes, I found myself holding back mine as well. I couldn't help the feeling, there was a surge of emotion that emerged from the pit of my stomach. The story lifted my Spirit, these days there aren't that many stories out there that do, or maybe there are, but they are not talked about, they don't make it in the Media.


So many today, mostly young people will do absolutely crazy things, wrong things to get their 15 minutes of fame. They should learn with this story that doing right, doing good, living with your heart can equally get you noticed. The story is still alive after over a month, shared through out the world wide web. And I felt compelled to write about it, because it is news worthy and should get far more attention than all the bad news. 


This Spanish runner has shown us all that sometimes, winning isn't everything.


Often if not always, the focus is on the bad people, and the media prolongs and gives to much attention to them. Let's talk about all the Good news in the world for a change! When you hear it, it creates a feeling right there in your chest, it Opens your Heart.

It lifts the energy.

Let's lift the Energy in this World!


This runner's unselfish action and decision restored my faith in human kindness, in seeing that there are still good people out there who refuse to be opportunists. In my eyes he is also a big time Winner!




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