The finish line?

I ran a marathon once.  The finish line was at the parliament buildings in Toronto, and to finish runners had to run about 3 km up a slight steady incline.  Not a huge hill, but it certainly felt rather long and steep after running the first 40 km of the race.  More frustrating was the fact that the finish line was around the corner behind Queen's Park (the parliament building) so it couldn't be seen until runners were less than a km away.  Onlookers were shouting "almost there!", and runners who had finished were walking back along the route with warming blankets and food in hands.

But I couldn't see the finish.  Even though I knew it was there, and people were cheering me on, it might as well have been another 40 km away in my mind because it wasn't in sight.  I felt like I'd never get there.

I feel that way now.  About work - school finishes on the last day of June which feels close enough but still so far away.  It can't be seen on my calendar yet as I open it to May.  Other things seem on their way to a finish but the end is not yet close enough to be tangible.  My knitting projects are on their way and more than half done in most cases, but not close enough that I could sit and finish any one of them in a long sitting.

I feel like I did those many years ago, running at near exhaustion with an end that's "almost there" but not in my line of sight...  And so I plod along at a steady pace and hope that the end is indeed just around the corner.