I have designated Saturday and Monday as my rest days, so no running today. Today I decided to strap on my new kicks and go for an hour walk instead. Prayer and meditation would have to take place during my walk because I was a little pressed for time this morning, and I was eager to get outside. My son sent me a meditation tool that I wanted to try and I still had thoughts over yesterday’s sermon that I wanted to pray over.
Yesterday morning was filled with tears and heartbreak as I joined my church online praying and listening to our pastor show true leadership over what our country is experiencing right now with the protesting over the death of George Floyd. I know that my sons and daughters have experienced some form of prejudice and/or racism in their short lives (as have I), so this has been especially hard. The take away message from the sermon was “It’s not too late” and how everything and anything can change given a different Perspective.
Perspective… What a powerful word! I thought about how given a different perspective on the same idea things could drastically change. It’s like the bridges I came across on my walk. I don’t know what compelled me to take a picture of the first bridge, but I just had to. This was on my way to the North side of the creek. I never saw the white bridge just a short distance away. On my way back, I only saw the white bridge and lost sight of the brown one I had initially used to cross over. I was still on the same trail, still used a bridge to cross over, but if you were to ask me what color the bridge was I would have to ask first “Which one? The one to, or the one from?”.
Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the inside of the brown bridge. I crossed it too fast and wasn’t paying attention to its importance. On the way back however, I started to understand the importance of listening to the same idea (the idea of getting across) from a different perspective (in this case the white bridge). I saw the beauty in this bridge and felt sad that I did not snap the same picture of the first. How quickly things pass us by without us stopping to think, understand, and appreciate their significance.
As I continued on my walk, I listened to the meditation technique shared by my oldest son, The Golden Key by Emmet Fox. I thought about so many things and then just flushed them out. It must have worked because I can’t even remember what all I thought about, only remember the feeling of love and peace. There was so much toxicity living in and around me the past few years. It hasn’t been until now that I feel like I can finally breath freely. It’s amazing how much one breath can heal.
My road is still long and filled with many curves, bumps, and bridges to cross but at least now I don’t feel alone. First and foremost, I KNOW that God loves me no matter what, and he will never abandon me (he has NEVER abandoned me). I also know that through running, I have with me the support of a world wide community of runners that are always there to offer their love and support. If there is anything that can be said of the running community is that they are fierce with love and support for all fellow runners. Never have I felt alone at a race or not felt encouragement in a sea of unknown runners’ faces.
After my walk, I remembered that I downloaded the podcast Marathon Training Academy. I love this podcast! It offered so much encouragement to me when I first started running years ago. I’m so glad it’s still on. I listed to an episode replaying an interview with the great David Clark. It reminded me of when I started running and gave me the push I needed to move forward with my indecision about training for my third ultra. I registered for my comeback marathon in December last night, but I was talking myself out of perusing my dream of running a 50 mile ultra-marathon. I think I’m going to wait on making my final decision on that one after I read David’s book Out There. LOL… more than likely it’s going to be a big fat YES. It would just be a matter of timing. Perhaps by the end of 2021?
Runmom_6 