Practice

As a kid I played instruments: organ lessons, piano, later picking up the guitar, recorder, and later still in a wanna-be rocker stage, messed around some with bass, drums, and lots of percussion. I still have vivid memories as a girl sitting at the huge organ of my Pittsburgh teacher, who played for the Pirates Stadium! Endless drills, testing my 'ear' to see if I recognized changes...and hours in my parents' living room at our own giant console playing hours of classical, popular, rock songs, along with my own improvisations. Music, art and writing were my 3 early passions. Where art and writing came effortlessly, music gave me the foundation of 'practice'. The switch in my right brain that came to know and trust the organic pathways of sound and pattern was on in a big way, and thankfully for me, has never been extinguished.

Many things can threaten our innate creative thinking. Mostly our own handicapped belief systems; the "I can'ts" or I shouldn'ts" which shift our energy from persevering towards something dreamed for, to keeping the 'status quo.' I recognize these same themes in my running. Big dreams carry me forward, practice gets me there, while I muster arguments against the can'ts and shouldn'ts in my head which try to talk me out of it all.

Practice is something which has come to permeate my life: there is my professional practice, my private practice, my creative practice, my spiritual practice, my running practice. If "application of an idea" is the basic definition, then Life becomes the practice of our conscious and unconscious ideas and beliefs. Yesterday's long run on the big Griffin loop got me back to thinking about 'distance'. At this very early stage of setting up for marathon training, I feel the need to clarify my own beliefs about the miles ahead. Somewhere amidst the nice long stretches, I realized that past knowledge is there to cover the Miami distance from '07: I could picture parts of it in my mind. I knew where it got particularly difficult as well as the infinite excitement of certain landmarks and areas as I passed through. Application of our beliefs is the fuel of manifesting: practice is the key, to get out there, to take the risk, to experience the unique challenges and opportunities that each new experience brings.

It took me a long time in life to put myself together where 'practice' was truly possible; when the emotional and personal landscape settled down enough to allow me to bring these long-held potentials to the forefront. As I witness more and more coming to fruition, I know there are abundance of Forces which work with us in our every good intent: the practice becomes a Partnership, and through this, we work the Magic that is the unfolding of our own New World.