Spring brings many puddles to the Finger Lakes - some years from melting snow and this year from rain. I’ve been spending a lot of time running on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal Trail to avoid the crowds at Seneca Lake State Park during covid-19, and it is blissfully peaceful. It has also lately been quite swampy in places. Today’s run was a perfect chance to embody “the only way out is through” because running through the middle of ankle deep puddles was a much wiser approach than trying to skirt the edges only to get stuck in shoe sucking mud. So, I plowed through the middle of extensive puddles and enjoyed the sensation of the cold water splashing onto the backs of my thighs and into my shoes. As a result, I not only had the joy of the sound of splashing water, but also of the squishing from my shoes as my feet got icy and then warmed back from running. These moments take me back to the freedom of my childhood, running through the woods, playing in the mud, and generally not giving a damn what got dirty in the meantime.