Yesterday I stood in Gent centrum and watched about 12,000 people pass by … at various speeds.  I was cheering on my friend Petra and my friend Tessi (mother and daughter).  Twenty-one kilometres of running is an achievement.  I’m proud of them both.

I scanned a lot of approaching faces as I searched for the two I know.  Woh!  That tired me out … and I was standing still.

But here they came … faces were full of delight as their hands slapped mine.  I was afraid I had missed the moment, but no fear.  We met.

And then there was the flow of humanity:

The elite athletes … slim and fast

The slow joggers … a few occasionally stumbling

The hordes of firefighters … oxygen tanks strapped to their backs

The grey-haired folks … looking stiff in the joints

The bright-eyed ones … as they spot a beloved in the crowd

The intense ones … their arms rigid and a bit high

The zen floaters … their feet seeming a few centimetres above the ground

The mothers and daughters, fathers and sons … family all

A young man pushing a handicapped fellow in an adult-sized stroller … happy to help

Everybody … 12,000 bodies and souls, flowing together