Running loves you back

It's true that there are moments in a runners life where we feel the struggle, the weight of effort that running requests. It's also true that at other times the pure and simple joy of the run itself, the landscape, the escape, the outlet, the company are all encompassing.  The run can lift us up, carry us away to the most spectacular vistas, the most amazing life changing trails, or the most musically attuned forest canopy. Sometimes the day is just right, the shoes shiver with excitement about the adventure ahead like the over enthusiastic about to be walked puppy tremor aching for release. The sun rise screams good morning, wraps you up in what little warmth an Ontario early November winter offers. The sky whispers come hither runner... Bring your soul so we might dance a while along the way. The clouds set a tempo in your toe, deep within your slow twitch muscle. And the karma of want matches desire to change your own world, one step, one stride at a time. Running helps you overcome the edges of doubt that creep in over time. It grants you space to be just you, exposed to the universe for all the beauty and splendour that we each are. This seemingly selfish place, where the mood is intoned in self care, self preservation and hope, belief for better or at least balance... Is where I am completely certain; Running Loves You Back. 

Running has few demands. It is nearly unconditional with its affection. It's affair with your spirit lasts a life time, long after the mud in your treads dries and cakes out onto the mat, well past when the headlamp has recharged, the drop bag unpacked, and your run pics have been posted online as a declaration of your presence with it.  Running loves you in the quiet, before the alarm shatters your dreams, pursauding you to make them reality. It hovers in the luminescent glow of the stove range light as you stumble through the dim in search of your gear. It rings in your ears with the sounds of your choice inspiring music or merely in the soft wake up calls of the brave birds who toughed out the snow.  The city wakes around you, the run whispers go easy, we have all day my friend. We skip too many moments of this passionate embrace with ourselves, with all the possible, all the hopeful, all our becomings. The run tethers us to the moment as much as it sets us free. It creates a hyper awareness of our need to let go. Running loves you back when your head is full, empty, twisted or contemplative. 

And yes, running demands attention. Focused effort to get out the door and make the attempt, but also aggressive struggle in the maintenance of stretching and rest. Running rewards good behaviour like a kindergarten teacher, offers treats and gold stars for follow through. The warm coffee at the end, the hot shower and lazy clothes, the quiet company of a well spent afternoon on a long meandering trail. The sleepy haze that overtakes too early in the evening, the careful absentminded wash and dry of tomorrow's clothes, laid out to run again. As if there was no question, as if you and the run know, we meet almost every day. Same bat time. Same bat channel. Right to my heart. This running thing, the strongest pull, my most affectionate lover, my most needy friend, my desperate want to please and my ongoing attempt to stand up and deny my definition within its genre. Running loves you back, waits for your return, calls your name at night under the starry sky. Running, as selfish as it is... Knows every nook and crack in my soul and provides the plaster, the mortar, to rebuild, redefine, and carry on... 

So today, spend some time loving the runner in you... 

Much love, 

rm