Casting our Nets

Passing the Equinox,  south Florida has slowly released its grip on steamy summer and rain.  In the mornings,  the faint brush of cooler air rises from it's night blanket on the ground, teasing the rising sun,  ready to cast it's bright hot light into the day.  Every runner out there knows perfect temps/conditions are a rare and wonderful boon.  So I ran Saturday morning before clients,  a nice western loop,  and Sunday, geared up for a rendezvous with La Mer at the beach.

I haven't tackled big distance in a long time.  However,  keeping my base and yoga routine has kept me consistent.  Running to the beach is challenge enough: enough distance,  enough effort to push myself short of exhaustion.  As I headed out into the brightening day, I was still lost in the fog of sleep.  It always takes me a while to get my head back to 'reality'- and why my work schedule is so beneficial for me:  having mornings to take care of my body and my business allows me a strong transition, and time for myself. 

Traffic was still light, and the tunes were going in my head.  I floated through the first few benchmarks;  the crossings at Dixie and Federal,  and cruised right through the last hump of overpasses and into the beach. 

As usual,  rewarded by a soft ocean breeze lifting off the sands, while the water gently reflected a sky full of sunlight and soft, white clouds bobbing off an azure horizon.

As the bladers, bikers, runners and walkers dodged each other down the Broadwalk,  I took in the scene from a few different vantage points while taking my pit-stop break,  filling my water bottles,  and reminding myself that access to a beach run, just miles from my own home, is just about as great as it gets!!!  And knowing that I can return home, on my own 2 feet,  made me feel strong and fit. 

Farewell and thanks were said to the spirits which welcome me each time I 'notice',  photograph, appreciate 'them', and the awe-inspiring manifestation of beach life.  And so I turn to head back west.   As I begin my climb up the first overpasses,  I spied a group of Latino folks fishing off the pier.  I rounded out the top of my second climb as I watched one young guy carefully fold then toss his net which billowed up into a perfect square and fell in a quiet whoosh into the water.  Spirit gives us "triggers points";  moments in time that seem to rise up off the canvas of our usual lives and get our attention.   I watched that young man with his net and felt the image of its gentle unfurling zing into my brain.  He doesn't know for sure what's under the surface.  He may have spied the currents, and schools of whatever type of fish he's after-  but everything in water is on the move.   His graceful movement told me this is a practiced effort.  So whatever he caught, long after I passed him,  it seemed he was assured that something would land in that net. 

We are all casting our small, square nets into a vast body of water.  We are being called to practice our skills in bringing up the issues, emotions, changes and aspects of Self which coalesce somewhere close, to be captured in the net of our attention.  Putting ourselves into The Flow of experience,  we allow ourselves to TRUST:  that the waters harbor what lies hidden from view,  that we have the resources to find what we need regardless,  that together with all the elements of Living Life we will bring these to the surface, to feast on and integrate new material, value our accomplishments, and ready ourselves for a new day. 

I bench-marked my way back (a technique for running any long distance- or solving any big problem- break it up into parts), and with the sun at my back,  managed to keep my (turtle's) pace until I finally broke into a walk for the last bits home.  I have cast some formidable nets in my life, and many of them were cumbersome and unruly- or the waters were stormy and full of debris- or the weather in general just so bad I could hardly keep to my feet at all.  Now, as I watched that man cast his net I felt a resonance.  Over the years I have learned to hone my skill.   The water, the weather and my own expectations seem mysteriously in sync.  I cast what feels like the right size or shape, and as it unfurls into the air, for a brief moment it almost looks like a flag, semi-permeable, liable to change, dropping down into the depths of myself searching- and finding for what informs me now, and what will shape my dreams later.

Practice the skills which will allow you to cast your nets into the depths of your dreams.   The results may surprise you;  or maybe you knew all along-  this is my good future....I will fish for the freedom this bounty brings.