Easter Sunday long run, beach loop

I wasn't planning on a a beach loop today,  in fact, as I thought about my options last night,  I was rather missing my big Griffin loop, the one that picks up the extra blocks and takes me by the old training route I used to run when a 12-er was normal.   I've felt extra fatigued of late, the fall-out of more intensity in every area, especially work, and inner changes...but nonetheless,  a call seemed to come as I stepped out the door; to put everything aside and come to the ocean.

I took the entire Sheridan stretch in one fell swoop.   The music was set to a good groove, and the winds came at me at a steady but manageable rate, giving me the extra resistance which got me focused....down past the morning traffic,  through the lights, the tracks, the early walkers, bladers, bikers, runners doing just as I was,  making their way to- or from- the beach.  At random moments, the rhythm of the run seemed to take on a life of its own.  Other times,  I felt tired again,  willing my feet to follow themselves and trying to shake out the core blockages to let the energy flow....

As I came up to the broadwalk at North Park, signs were posted for Easter sunrise service...a quaint reminder, as a Jew of what today means for many,  another opportunity for us pagans to use whatever Light is available to amplify our own efforts.   For me,   TIBET, world peace....world transformation....world healing,  to hone my 'channel' for same.   I stood at the rail and watched a small circle of what must be Christians preparing for what must be a baptism;  you can just see them in the photo.  I watched as they huddled in prayer and the surf came crashing around their feet.   The sun was a bright glow just above the palms and the sudden shift into fresh, beautiful Florida earth came onto me,  the essence of Mother Gaia's riches,  the intrinsic magnificence of Her soul.

Heading back,  I found my back routes and with the wind at my back, settled nicely into my groove,  lifted above the chatter of practical demands floating around in my head.   My legs were tired after yesterday's run,  so with the last remaining blocks I took it nice and easy,  feeling happy as always to be unencumbered,  unbothered,  unbound.  It is human nature to seek the means to get into, through and beyond the concepts of ourselves, unless you are someone who needs those boundaries,  then they belong to you.   But on rare occasions such as this, with so much metaphysical energy available,  ride the tail of transcendence into the riches of your own internal mind.   Find the tracks which seek to take you on pilgrimages to the altar within.   You might find the treasure you always sought, all along,  there in the dark places, waiting for  you.  

Endurance

The beach called to me as I woke up to get ready for my Sunday long run.  It has been a while since I did a real one,  not a substitute, and last week I took a rest day altogether.  A while too since I wrote here, so long runs are key to fueling blog posts, apparently!   The warmish night had given way to a cool early morning, with the sun just climbing from the horizon and the humidity low.  The sky was free of clouds and the crystal quality of the light just pulled me east.  I was packing light, thinking an out and back would be just right.  I wasn't keen on passing a few nostalgic points, but pushed on,  feeling the weight of my sleep slipping off the longer I went,  catching my first pit stop at the Publix.   Took the final 2 over passes and hit the beach ready to soak up the morning sun.....

The water lay like a magic carpet of light;  I was caught full on in the shards of brilliance and got my breath while the league of tourists and exercise rats crossed by.   Felt somehow lifted off the calendar, as it becomes increasingly hard to tell, just what season we are in.

I headed out once more finding a beautiful rhythm to my stride as i took the overpasses again, and found a new alley just parallel to the main drag which gave me blocks and blocks of privacy even from the houses themselves.  Lost in the motion,  I began to feel the lighted joy of the run, remembering my many beach loops in training,  the meandering neighborhood streets,  the miles criss-crossing my many weeks of busy work, busy prep, busy times.

Endurance is a trait many runners innately possess, or acquire,  and about every runner needs it to commit to the sport.   Endurance is learned once the body has built a strong base, and the quest to increase the capacity to take the pounding of running, to hit the transcendence begins.  I flew several stretches....I walked many too.   It was this wonderful mix of pace which gives me the feeling of internal focus...I was fully adrift in the magic of my dreams. 

My visions seem echoed everywhere.  And the peace I feel is the reflection of synching up the synapse with change, as it flows through me and around me.   It is captured, at times,  like butterflies, gently perched on days not yet hatched.  I follow them....one by one.....by one. 

Spring Equinox 2012

Mello Rye, Priestess of the Sun

The sweet, delicate balance of equinox on the cusp of Spring/Aries energy,  of inner and outer planes,  of spirit and physicalities *yes I just made that word up*,  dropped into my awareness like the fragrant scent of flowers, the growing push of unrealized dreams, hopes and communal aspirations.   Dark forces bleed out their fractious impulses all around the world, while the Light workers funnel the higher vibes into the vortex of change...The balance point is the choice point in every moment, leaning towards- or away from- the transformation, which will happen:  one way or the other.

As a true Aries gal in many ways,  waking up today was like stepping into my true self.  Powerful women face the push-back from the patriarchy in so many ways we tend to take it for granted...we give a little ground here,  we reconcile there, for the sake of 'peace'- we lose battles and ultimately the larger 'war' when we forget to claim our power.  Watch the news any day to see how our very notion of The World is couched in the dark terms of repression/oppression/control/domination ad nauseum, a dialogue created when we 'buy' this sick matrix and fall deep into its beliefs.  

Ancient teachers and healers have always alerted us to the The Mother's higher path, call it what you may.  I have been reminded deeply of Mello Rye lately,  our teacher in the 'Sun Temple' circle, who stood as a conduit, as depicted above, between Mother Earth and the wide Universal Forces 'above'...finding the link, channeling the divine energies to connect, heal, grow, glow....become free.

The transformation during times of intense change is as subtle as it is powerful....and yet every effort is lifted by our conscious connection.   Today I look at how I was guided to lay down burdens I have learned from,  and embrace new challenges in my path.   I release the stagnant scars of disempowerment and remember Who I Really Am.   Radiance.   Luminescence.  Star dust.  Sun Light.  

Today,  find your inner core, the balance point of you.   Seek to coax the essence of your soul out of hiding to infuse your daily spirit with a knowing and ...growing....into the beautiful being you are.  It is not far,  it is HERE.  May Lovely Spring bring you Her promise of all good things cracking open like seeds in the fertility of your dreams. 

Winds of Inspiration

                                                          The goddess of adventure


Mother Nature has flung Her range of weather at us of late,  short stretches of cold,  sweltering summer-like temps, blustery rains;  wait 20 minutes, and it might all happen- as others experience more record-breaking storms, tornadoes, dust storms and drought...the list goes on and on.  Weather is an indicator.  Like symptoms of the body,  Mother Gaia uses weather as her regulator and expression.   Pat Robertson had it almost right about the prayer in the Midwest;  the earth is always in process of manifesting the energy within the matrix of our connections,  us with Her,  with all other life forms, within the cradle of the Cosmos.

So as I walked out the door this morning on the heels of last night's rain, and into the stiff winds,  I decided to head to the park where I knew the weather would chase off most folks.  Sure enough,  as I rounded the path,  I had the luxury of sliding into an easy gait without stress from cars and most anyone else...the solitude I always crave but seldom find.   Diana the Huntress was known for her solitary nature, taking off into the woods and finding the elements of herself apart from the pressures of life.  In recent news,  the view of those who live alone is being redefined as positive, empowering, blasting the old stereotypes of 'loneliness.'

Women, we need our space and time apart from the pressures of men and the world where definitions of who we are and why will continue to pollute our own growth process.  Never before has it been so important to protect and cultivate our power and connections with ourselves and one another.   Before you seek romance, success, material fulfillment,  go on an adventure to find yourself.   Take off into the first interesting path that calls you, where the trees open up into wide skies and stars, and the light is shimmering down to bathe you in luminescence.  Believe you are the incarnation of every huntress who found herself compelled to take off, to run, dance, sing, create, breathe life into the weary world.  When you doubt yourself the most,  that's when the impulse can be strongest.  We can never be done with the quest, and there is no 'final destination'...but the gifts of certainty and inner confidence are the reward. 

Running Nature

"Our inmost nature wants some medium, some way to express and realize itself."- Suzuki

I ran a nice, moderate loop on Saturday and again today;  no Sunday long run.   The pressures of work and on the inner planes are such that a greater need for rest came upon me, and for once I listened.   My self-massage efforts paid off too,  because the chronic hitch in my right foot/leg was loosened again somehow, and today I really felt the difference in my gait.  Of course one release in one spot shifts the balance, and now I can feel the 'issues' in my left foot....it's a never ending process of constant adjustments.

The nature of running goes parallel to the nature of living, of expression and art, for me.   Or rather, the many threads of existence are simultaneously seeking new and interesting ways to connect.  While some parts of me are busy fulfilling my daily obligations and service,  others are deep on the hunt for answers to questions I haven't yet asked,  lessons I didn't always know I needed,  experiences which broaden my capacity to understand- my Self, my Big Mind,  the biggest of all, the Heart of Nature Herself.

Sometimes,  like now,  the forces are such that I am happy to cruise along my path and enjoy the ride.  Running gives me a traveler's look at everything around and in me....a way to encompass the matrix of me as I wind around what only looks like the same course, but climbs as a spiral upon itself, finding new levels and vibes.   I love that we are fundamentally unable to define any of it;  at the same time we are compelled to try.  

Sunday Run 2-19-12

When I made the final turn home about 200 meters from the finish line I felt a wave of emotion. I knew that it was going to happen. I was going to be on the team to London. This experience reminded me that you need to keep faith in yourself. Never count yourself out, you never know what you can do." - Kara Goucher

It was quiet the only way Sunday mornings can be....the world tucked tight into its dreams and the morning air sitting on the earth like a soft blanket,  warm for this time of year, and leading me out to my Sunday run adventure.   Determined to work out my 'rough spots',  I had no big agenda;  I wanted simply to move my way into a rhythm and see how far it felt like I needed to go.   Looping through the neighborhood,  by the time I headed west on Park, I felt the old contrast between our bodies at rest and our bodies in motion.  Usually more a conflict, sometimes a flght, I am coming to understand my lifelong quest to master my relationship with my body in a way in which rest feels like rest,  and motion is another nature state.   I am moving off the stress of racing and PRs, distances and times.  Much as I wish I was endowed to be invested in all of that, it is because I am an aging 'middle-packer' that I work for a relationship with running that works for me now.

The straight stretch through Park to my first pit stop was good in the Karhus...I am liking their light, balanced feel.   I decided to cut through 56th and round up Emerald Hills,  a modest 'long run' by comparison to training, but long enough to find that window where the aches decrease and the rhythm of the gait begins to churn up into a motion that feels like flight.  Many runners dissociate to handle distance;  perhaps the only positive application of this mechanism and a hold-over from childhood when we try to distance ourselves from pain.  For me,  it just feels like a journey, a 'trip' out of myself into a bigger Me,  which is linked in the vast matrix of world and where we blend into a perfectly entrained partnership.  Best yet is when I feel this whether in a good pace,  a walk- or even better- at any time I choose to link with that which is greater than me, sees more than I can- understands more.

The run is sometimes my doorway.   It is the confidence in my own connection at work.  Most folks prefer sitting meditation,  which I like as well,  or yoga and other moving meditations- also part of my routine.   They are aspects of Being which create windows to experience ourselves in natural ways.   It is the Natural World which prompts us to believe in the spiritual force of our physicality, as it links with our vibrations and resonates with our emotional minds.   Today,  you can enhance this relationship by taking in what Nature has offered;  whether you feel it through your eyes, your ears- or your heart.

Kara Goucher

Valentine's Day Run

The mystic bridge from dreaming sleep to wakefulness took me back from the brink of big interiors and into the soft light of early morning, rolling out of bed to throw on my running gear and head out the door into a magical morning.   The Big Chill has passed us by,  but the slight edge of coolness lingered on the strong sun.   I read somewhere that with increased solar storms we are also getting more solar energy than ever....and as I made my way to the overpass,  I wondered how all these electromagnetic particles were re-arranging my cells into vibrating instruments ready to take me where I want to go.

I cruised up 29th, dodging the usual traffic and headed up Anglers to make my cut over to my Publix pit stop at Griffin.  I felt strangely light on my feet, despite the fact that I am still trying to work out the new Karhus and kept adjusting my ties.  The aftermath of the race is mostly in my ankles now,  and it will take a while before I begin to feel my feet under me in a strong and secure way.

Plenty of walkers out,  and a few runners....the warmth growing with the morning, I shuck one layer and make my way back through the trailer park, across Stirling and back towards the park and home.  I focused on my body through my astral Ka connecting with the Ka of earth,  feeling my feet sink into the soft matrix of energy which surrounds us both.  Clearly if solar energy is increasing then the vibration of everything is ramping up,  springing us into a new level of felt sense,  in how our bodies- and minds- connect.  Often,  this feels visceral, as if I could peel away the layers by hand and at others,  as if the whole inner landscape of my Self has expanded on the winds....running in such a state feels ethereal.  But as always,  running is a grounding action;  it takes us from mind to body by connecting us with the motion of ourselves from the inside out.  All these ways to connect,  to live and breathe within the Body of Great Mother Herself.

Today,  while giving your loving attention to all your dear ones,  remember the earth upon which you stand.  Beneath the concrete streets and sidewalks,  She is breathing her Life into you.  Above the worried skies,  the wide expanse of an Endless portal is seeking to lead you further than you've ever gone before.   Today,  pour your Love before you out of the vessel of your heart.   Hear the music of the spheres singing your way.   Today, look up.  And sing with them.