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.