Storm Run

At a comfortable, easy 174 bpm I decide to see what it's like to be outdoors, through the end of Faye's cycle of squalls. The majority of the system is well on her way; but her far reaching swathes of squalls, muted as they are, still present micro-bursts of blustery activity. The air was wonderful! Full of pressures, and speed and oxygen. I did a very manageable 4-5 mile loop up Thomas and back on Park. Hitting that wide open straightaway, I let myself float in joy in the pacing, rhythm and indulgence of motion. I thought about a thousand different things; I laughed at modern civilization, and my own notions of 'running', in my 'running gear'...for no reason. I thought how narrow a span of time when we humans would run for no reason, and not to hunt, travel or communicate. I'm sure, sometimes, I was a messenger/runner. It's got to be behind my compulsive desire to learn how to master distance. It all just seems so familiar and right. I can so easily imagine the type of inner spiritual and emotional space a runner like that must have, to slip into their 'traveling' rhythm and be at one with the physical world. I think about the Japanese monks who run as THEIR spiritual discipline, on a bowl of rice, around mountains and trails that would challenge anyone. For no reason. Even our jobs, which we invent out of our definitions of necessity; how do we become so attached to our activities?? One thing I love about the immensity of Nature, She will remind you of what is real. And immediate. Everything else is just our own pretensions. We can think all this drama is going somewhere. But when I run, I realize it's all going nowhere fast, and that is the amazing thing. We are just where we left it off, a million years ago before we ever took this detour. Before we ever got side-tracked and distracted. Before the lower needs took the place of Informing the world. We are creators, still. And the raw power of Nature takes us back to primordial beginnings, and the place where primary push and purpose speaks to all of us now.