Running

Look around the next time you walk out the door or look out the window. Are there certain people you look for? Maybe you know their names, maybe not. Your looking for them makes them touchstones in your life. It really doesn’t matter if you know their names because you are aware of how they are a part of your life.

Every day when our dogs take me out for our early morning walk-run-sniff-etc. there are people I look for. Some are runners. Some are walking or biking on their way to work. For the last dozen years I lived in towns where people took their cars everywhere. Now I again live surrounded by the excitement of people who get out and go.

They’re motivated to mobilize themselves.

Doctors forbade me to run years ago. How is that going to stop a collegian with places to go, people to see and things to do? I ignored the doctors and took the consequences.

Somewhere along the line I caught on that walking is my better choice. That’s what I do while watching others run. And wishing I could.

I’ve come to look forward to a watching one particular young runner. Watching him is like watching a high school or college track and cross-country runner. The way he lifts his legs, propels himself forward — wills more from his straining body no matter how far he’s run or how tired he may be — inspires me.

We’ve just begun to say hello. My concern is that he will slow down and lose his pace in greeting me.

Keep your pace.

Regardless how good or ill you think life is, keep your pace. More than with the way you walk or run.

Pace your thoughts.

Pace your prayers.

Measure your meditations.

Monitor your thinking. Do good and avoid evil, as the twentieth century theologian Wilfrid Tunink, O.S.B., was fond of saying.

Whether or not you believe in a deity, believe in yourself. Believe in your ability to do good. Know that, no matter what, you have within yourself the power to make your life better. To make this world a better place to be.

How you run to your goal determines how you make this a better world. How you make your life better.

We can be like my dogs and chase squirrels. The squirrels in our brains, once they make a home, never want to leave. Helping them find a new home can be a long, hard job.

I chase angels. I chase their joy, their happiness, the way they love our existences and their own. I chase after the sublime serenity I see in their beings.

I run to them because they teach me what I need to know. They show me how to slow down. How to approach my fellow humans with care. Regardless of what I may have earlier determined was the best way to deal with other people, the angels have shown me better ways.

They run and jump and do somersaults over bushes and buildings to celebrate the sheer excitement of living. They show me what it means to let go with my spirit. To stop holding on to my life so tightly that I prevent myself from breathing joy into my lungs.

It’s how I think of the young runner.

He stretches. He pulls. He aims ever forward.

He personifies angelic exultation.

We have sunshine in the darkness when we stretch open our minds’ eye. When we open up to let light into our souls.

If I am willing to do with my soul what the runner does with his body, I can pull myself to visions beyond my wildest dreams.