Mother's Day Run '08

Bloody hot this weekend!! I did 2 loops Sat and Sun, both approx. 10+ miles, and both with the heat in my face and crawling up my legs to make the air feel like molasses and the Hollywood sidewalks like furnaces. Yesterday was particularly brutal...I heard the temps reached mid-90's...and I was a bowl of jello by the time that endeavor came to an end! And yes, despite the trauma and toll it takes on me, I was right back out there today...

I had to run to salute the very earth I traveled. To thank Her for her amazing hospitality and kindness, for the constant sense of adventure I have every time I go out, for the wide Florida skies, the high winds, the moist heat of day baking through my skin.

I had to run for the mothers in parts of the world veiled behind burkas, wrapped in dark shades of poverty and repression who never think to stretch their minds, their souls, let alone their legs, who search for the means and ways to keep 'women's wisdom' and healing alive in the middle of the patriarch's manufactured hell.

I had to run for Aunt Rose, and for my Mom, the 2 women who nurtured me and no matter what were always present with faces of compassion and hearts full of love to embrace me. The elder women teach me about endurance, and faith, and how to live through difficult times and trials. The experience of having my Mom glow up to me as I show off my running, or any other aspect of my life is a great mark of respect from one generation to the next. I honor her longevity, and her ability to wake each day and say 'yes' to this world; I know for her it is never easy.

I had to run for Michael. To honor the experience that I was granted to be a mother to a soul so amazing, unusual and beautiful. I thought about many scenes from our lives together; from creating cities in sand at age 3, to navigating the chronic challenges and changes in our lives through divorce and separation, depressive episodes, traveling tales and wonders and the blessing of bringing lovely Yu into his and our lives. I am a Mom to a son who honors me with his humor, sharp intelligence and fearlessness. He is inventive, introspective, influenced by little outside his own good sense. A true chip off the ol' block, to be sure!

I had to run for myself; deep within, the same power which ignited my spiritual quest early in life, my creative curiosity, my ability to give birth, to conquer an odd array of physical and emotional challenges, and to give back to the world propels me on my feet 5 out of 7 days of the week or more. I honor the spirit and energy of the Deep Feminine which, through warriors past and present, continues to battle for it's own true resurrection in the shift of tides and times. I know I have within me the strength that runs through, adapts and wins the day, if only to take us all one step closer to Her infinite Love.