Healing on the Run

While coping with the upswing in aches and pains (I blame it on Spring), I managed an out and back this AM with enough good stretches to instill a bit more confidence for future training...and plenty of walking.   The rhythmic effort gave me the mental space to put together a nice piece of Insight:

After many years of being my parents primary person, climbing my professional ladder and now post death of them both, I see how I needed to push away as much as possible the pressures and intent of others, even as I may love or need them.   I can't do this in client work;  in fact, counseling gives me a space to stay emotionally open and available while maintaining personal boundaries, so it's good for me that way.  But running from all others has been my way to gain much much needed healing space and find the solace and strength I need to regroup and begin the next chapter in my life.

Those of you who I cut down, off or marginalize, please feel my intent to move forward in the Light and Love of our Good Future.   I know it is there, just as sure as Spring is coming to bless the land with Renewal and Hope.  I am glad my Aries energy is available while I muster the focus to get going...and I hope you all will come along!

Spring Long Run 3-27-11

My sleep seems edgy and disrupted by either my body's discomforts or blasts of impressions and dreams,  making the last 3 days without running a more uneasy experience, even if I did catch a break.
I forget that pushing at constant levels is counter to the wax and wane of intuitive training.  I've done it by the numbers, I set mileage goals, race goals, weight goals.   Much of what I seem to be going through with aging is altering my perception of training- and running altogether.  The instinctive approach I probably espoused was less in evidence than now.  And I'm grateful I've finally 'caught on' to this sensible- middle- way.

Up early enough for dawn (advantage of post-daylights savings), I just kept the thought "long run" and wasn't even sure which way to begin until I got out the door.   The usual choices are well-worn grooves in my mental maps.  Today, I craved that long straight stretch on W. Park, where on an early Sunday morning you can be blissfully unbothered by cars, mostly.   A divided highway which, before Wilma, had a majestic row of Mature fig trees, most of which were blown over in the hurricane, west Park is the closest I can get to trance-like running, as it goes on long enough to establish great rhythm.  There is comfort in the safety of footfalls, and space to go completely inward with my body, and not many places to achieve it.  (John Lloyd, another good site).

 3 days off could go badly, but I did a good stretch all the way to little John Williams, hidden gem off the corner of 441 and now home of "the Sheridan Oaks" according to the new nature sign.   A small park that prides itself on packing much into a small piece of land.  And has the big, old world feel of TY.   Good pit-stop, water fountains, bathrooms, benches, walkways.   I pee, drink and stretch.  I eat part of the Greek date/walnut cake I am trying as road fuel.  (good!)  From here I used to push up the overpass to hit the Seminoles rez, but now they've put their new security in, so that's no go.  And a push beyond that to cut over- and up- back to Stirling, then Griffin, is a long run for a latter day.

So the cut through the east of 441, back over to 56th, seems like the smart move.  Another beautiful, quiet neighborhood stretch, until I pick up the path heading for the intersection where 56th morphs into N 40 and another overgrown magical neighborhood to run through.  To Griffin.  The big stretch to Publix and pit-stop #2.  Rest of the cake, water, pee.   I never realize that people look at me, since I am usually oblivious and deep in my music...but once in a while I catch a curious look, a smile.  Very few runners are ever out on the roads.  We have plenty of cyclists....where are the runners?  On gym treadmills??

It was a long and brutal stretch to Publix.  Finally I could feel the lack of distance endurance.  This will be my longest run in a while- a good 12?  And as I head out through the trailer park and pick up Stirling, my pace was steadier, my rhythm a little foot heavy, but intact.

A lot has been on my mind.   The clinical scenes from emotional counseling sessions are allowed back in my head on the run....there is very little space anymore to register what I witness or honor it, and somehow having the space to let all its nuance penetrate me is very important for me to understand my cases.  I thought of my Saturday girls as I call them.  I thought of some of my young BARC clients who I adore, who are making the turn, hearing the Call, getting it together and blossoming like flowers, picking up the Vibe as it hits us all.

If you are feeling agitated, upset, frustrate, confused,  rejoice!  You are right on schedule.  It never seems like these highly critical, intense states are worthwhile for anything but a big excuse to do something counter-productive.  But these seem to be built in signs and signals that we pay attention, because this is The Shift at work....honing, scraping, shaping our Future Lives Now.

Surrender to the Force of Nature which has picked us all out of Her box of likely materials to create the Matrix of Her own renewal.  We are her shroud, her cloak, her many colored veils.  It is within Us, that She throws Her Light out into the World through the costume of manifestation.

Medicine Buddha Mantra By Khenpo Pema Chopel Rinpoche

The Revoluton, Continued

If you haven't read the Dalai Lama's statement on the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, it's worth seeing how the world's most activist spiritual leader puts his ideas across about what is happening around the world.  "This earth belongs to humanity...."  is one example of his clear and inspired statement, and we, who are flung out around the globe and 'hear' him, are called to muster our collective will to continue the Fight for Freedom:  Universal Human/Civil Rights for All.

 Wisconsin, along with other states in the US, are now facing the same repressive, conservative push to shut down our Voice and values....as a proud local government employee and union member, I stand in solidarity with my brother and sister workers who are gathering on the steps of their state capital buildings demanding entrance to the building, let alone the table, to dialogue, negotiate, solve problems.

My hope rests with the youth of the world, the same young people who took up their Facebook links and created the ouster of Mubarak and began the domino effect of a global liberation movement.  In the US, we are complacent, overwhelmed and jaded by the corporate take-over of our public interests and the rush to riches by the top 1%.   The rest of us who work to create sustainability, practicality and a Vision of a New Paradigm where everyone has a chance to fulfill their aspirations have been woken up by the Beast of totalitarian tactics.  Wisconsin, I stand with you.  Michigan, Ohio...stay strong.  Florida is surely soon to join you in the struggle.

Take up your Facebook links, and organize.  Show up.  Sign recall petitions, drum your drums.  Pray that the hardened hearts of the 'Haves' are softened by the plight of the 'Have-nots' who are faced with basic scarcity of every element of life.  Freedom will not be denied;  even our beloved Mother Earth will shrug off Her shackles of poison pollution and neglect with Her own version of Revolutionary Evolution.   We can still stand on the right side of history:  the Time is Now.

The Long Run

Miami marathon 2008.   The ultimate long run, and at that time a first:  never had I run 26.2 miles, never had I stayed on my feet nearly 6 hours to do it, never did I imagine, in my wildest dreams, pulling that off in my early 50's, ex-smoker, no sports hx, etc.  I'm glad to say I did my 2nd marathon in '10.  But since then, it's been a general re-acquaintance with 'reality' and a training regime I can cope with amidst the upswing in my professional life.

As every runner knows, the long run is the keystone of the running week.  Whatever I can pull off between Monday and Saturday, on Sunday I am blissfully free of traffic, distractions and obligations.   It's me, my music and the wide open roads.  Slowly but steadily, I am revisiting distance, still pulling up the miles, getting comfortable again out on long stretches while the weather is on my side.

Today, before the next wet front pulls in, the blustery early spring morning gave me partly cloudy skies and very moderate temps.  I am still breaking in the new Sauconys,  and felt tired and sore for the entire loop up to my Griffin Publix pit-stop.   Once I headed back out, the westerly direction put the wind at my back and I looped lazily down the cut to Stirling, was finally able to let loose, open my stride and allow my mind to wander around recent events.  Today is Tom B's memorial.  It was hard not to think of the last Hugh Birch World Run day run,  when even though he wasn't in running mode, Tom came for solidarity and support.  Tom was an encourager, a staunch 'all in' all-program guy.   And the last client I would have believed to let slip anything in his 24/7 focus.   That said, I also know the depth of his demons, the impact of emotional pain to derail the best intentions, and the sad sad loss this is for everyone who was connected to him in any way.

The long run is the key to surmounting any challenge, tackling any obstacle.  There is, within us, an enormous capacity to embrace the imagined vision of ourselves, and the daily effort to reach our intended goals.   Whether the change is a physical one, like fitness, an emotional one such as in healing our issues, or spiritual, to find and cultivate our Connection with Source, the courage it takes to step up onto the Path is not for the faint of heart.   Running builds endurance of body and soul.   The long run is our chance to find ourselves while deep in the middle of the trek.   Our destination is assured as long as we stick it out..   There is no where to go- but forward!