Beautiful Beach: Sunday long run 8-25-13

"Running has thrown me into adventures that I would otherwise have missed"

-Benjamin Cheever

Persistent tropical moisture swirls around the Gulf and Caribbean basins.  South Florida sports a lush, green landscape- in comparison,  many times by August we are hot and withered.  This year, we are hot and wet, wet, wet.

Running has become an adventure of seeing if I can make it out and back before any rain interferes.... while yesterday,  as I headed out for a Sunday long run,  a strange chill was in the air.  This was all the reason I needed to point east.  The Sundays of big Griffin loops and more or less consistency with my base gave me some confidence that beach and back would be fine, especially with a surprise weather gift:  cloudy, breezy- perfect.

I've read somewhere that radiation from Fukashima mixes with the wild electro-magnetic energy, producing vivid anomalies (like lightening out of nowhere) and more than usually beautiful colors and skies.  This I can believe.  When you live where it's flat,  the sky is a canvas of unusual presence.  And lately it seems as if all Mother Nature's artistry is apparent especially morning and dusk,  when the sun transforms the heavens with luminosity, and colors the cloud formations with quiet grandeur.  It was worth every step to make it to North Park, tired as I felt, and somewhat disconnected from my body.  The pace of work, of change, or staying centered while so much chaos floats around me takes its toll.  As usually happens,  it takes at least a few miles, and in this case, pretty much the whole way to the beach,  before I felt truly empowered into my body.  This, in and of itself, is a tremendous boon about running.   For people like me who tend to 'live in their heads',  it takes an effort to ground.   By the time I trained my camera on La Mer,  spread upon the sands in the diffusion of morning light,  I felt at peace,  welcomed into the day.

As I turned back and headed west over the intercoastal,  I could feel my feet want to give way to quiet walking....but determined to make this a true 'training run',  I talked them into keeping up a running pace even if my run looks so much like fast walking these days....
as I kept on past US 1 and each intersection,  I felt a confidence in my pace that overcame the discomfort or fatigue....somewhere I felt a release into mild dissociation,  the 'trance' state that comes once the body settles into itself, and the mind is empty and free.  I was grateful for the pause.  Too often thinking only reinforces out-moded beliefs, raw emotions with no cause,  preoccupations with neuroses...none of which I need or wanted....and my feet gave me the freedom to simply feel "myself."

There will be much bombarding us with news of wars and rumors of war.  Environmental and human degradations and extinction protocols.  Threats from the sun,  climate changes, and each other.   The insanity of our own irrational greed.   It's good to know that we can go within,  however that works for you,  to find Our True Self.   No one has to tell you what that is or how to get there.  Once you feel it,  you will 'know'  what and who you really are,  a part from the crazy projections of the world.   Find your way in.   And become familiar with the space at the center of your life unencumbered and free.  Move within it, sing to it,  listen for it's message of love and acceptance.  It calls you,  misses you.  It belongs to you.  

Easy Does It, for Now

When running in summer heat,   I am always looking for patches of shade thrown by the trees along the streets,  or chances to slip into any number of small parks flung across the neighborhoods where a rest-stop beckons. 

These mimosa and oak trees standing strong in Emerald Hills.....

and this very tall palm catching my eye against a bright sky,  as I walked the last bits home on yesterday's Griffin loop long run.

Barely keeping a base going,  maybe 20-25 miles a week, roughly,  I am coping with my body's decreased temperature regulation against a solid wall of humidity and heat which has gripped us all summer long...and keeps me feeling like a beginner again just trying to get any kind of gait going, any mileage being good mileage,  just to move at all my humble goal.

I feel a pause in everything:  while transition continues in global circumstances, and the earth Herself regroups through the barrage of celestial changes,  I seem poised on the brink of things completely unseen and unknown.  Packing,  for what?  Where?  My 'vision'  seems blocked and unable to move into a forward timeline.  Meanwhile,  all I really want to do is take it easy,  gaze lovingly at the Natural world around me, and fill myself with the bountiful artistry that is Gaia.

The 'to do' list isn't going anywhere.   And neither are my endless speculations about what's going on and what it all might mean for any of us.  But I catch myself, sometimes,  laughing at all the drama,  once I immerse myself in the life of living things.  Each flower lifts itself like a gift into my eye-line.   Each petal asks for it's place in the Sun.   I would rather spend my time in my own natural self, aligned with this endless vibrancy.   Running gives me this. 

Run, Rest, Rejunevate: Repeat

I've been revisiting many aspects of my life as I continue the packing project;  this piece shown here is a silkscreen from my early 20's circa Bennington, VT, after I met Jay,  who became a springboard for all things New Age.  I was still making art, trying to express what I was learning.  Amazing how well this piece captures an ascension/meditation process, in 7 parts....and how well I remember my intent, hopes and dreams,...which mostly remain....as my core intent- hopes and dreams!!

Lately it feels as if things are running on parallel paths.  By day drawing upon my knowledge and experience to provide the support for those who are marginally making the transition from utter catastrophes to some semblance of stabilization,  or navigating the deep anxieties such a world is bringing upon us, as it morphs through the summer of change,  the shift through the star-gate, portals and potentialities which summon us on through these times.  By night,  intrepid explorer of the Zeitgeist,   following the flow of dreams, intuition, guidance, signs and events as they manifest themselves to me and my ability to 'translate' into patterns which shape the nature of the path ahead.

Out on the Griffin loop yesterday,  I felt barely conscious of my body.  So swept up into the dichotomies of these realities,  it seems I hardly have the chance to transition in- or out- of one state before I am drawn into the next.  As I started up 29th, I kept trying to 'locate' my feet and get grounded with Mother Earth, lost somewhere in dreamland, not quite registering the intensity of the early morning heat,  the movement of my legs up the street.
I found my way down Ravenswood finally catching up to myself.   A rhythm settled in to my gait as my breathing regulated....the 'drift' lifted as I felt the embrace of a glorious, quiet Sunday unfold before me.  The ride down 35th was steady and sure-footed and my head was full of nothing much at all except a quiet exhilaration deep inside as my body carried me on it's cadence of motion through Emerald Hills. 

Blazing sun through the cloud cover greeted me as I walked home.  I took my time and absorbed the show....

wondering as I often do, looking at the skies,  what is revealed in these atmospheric displays which might give a hint of our fate....of Mother Earth's intent.  Or maybe it's Her reflected joy, as She spreads light and color across the canvas of things just so....this happiness that comes with Creation. 

I understand that feeling.   I am there.   We are all creating our lives each and every moment,  just as the Grand Creatress of them all centers Herself upon Her potentiality and draws in the most urgent design...the formless seeking form,   the image seeking expression,  the Vision which must be born.  Rest assured,  there is an Imperative at work.  The World is heeding a Higher Calling....and it's about to call YOU to wake up to Her manifest beauty.  After all,  that's what She's been asking all along.  For once you really 'see' Her,  you will fall in love with Her.  And once that happens you will want to be as close as possible,  protecting and nurturing Her- just as She protects, and nurtures us.