Jumping, Leaping, Hopping... Running Free
‘Is that the liner’s hooter?’ I asked Anadi… At the sound of what sounded to me like a ships horn…
I am more alerted to ships hooters today, because as we drove through Castries yesterday the Ocean liner cruise ship was docked, and the road we drove on took us right up to it, we were almost on the lower deck…! It was huge, so huge.
Another world, a very big group of people all experiencing cruising around the Caribbean together…
I am always curious about the worlds we inhabit; it was a ‘trick’ I used to play on myself to help me relax and let go of my ‘worry about an outcome’ when I had not learnt how to run my races more freely…
I would forget sometimes that I was offering my races up, allowing my creativity its expreesion, my gift to the world…! And instead I would be gripped with fear, feelings of great pressure, and of wanting the race to be run….
As I journeyed to a race I would look about and for sure I would encounter other worlds; I would see in field as we passed by, a show jumping event, a gymkana, sometimes a church fete. If we passed the sea, I would witness sailing and windsurfing races. Sometimes I would spy an arrow pointing the way to motorcross… I would peek into these other worlds and see that they too were made up of creative expression, enthusiasm, talent, friendship hard work, community spirit and all the neurosis too; just like my own running world…
And I would relax and know that there were actors getting ready to perform, huge events and parties and weddings just starting, dinner parties being shopped for, homework being done; books being written, recipes being experimented with….
And I would relax deeper again, and know that we are all actors on the stage of life… And as William Shakespeare wrote, we are all on the journey from birth to death...
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
We all play a part, often many parts; but we can move beyond this and know to that within this journey is the chance of freedom from the traps of the body, the mind, the expectations and the scripts, the masks that we put on...
And I can see that when I run a race, instead of it being a world I am entering to play my part... It is a space to transcend the body, the mind, the restrictions of my beliefs and to set myself free…
In each moment this is possible. When we encounter one another we can choose to be real, and instead of playing a part, we can throw away the scripts, and the memories of the past from which we write our parts... Instead we can create our future from the core of our being in this very moment that we are in now…
The path opening before us, as yet untrod - not known about at all…
And the sound I heard just now, was not the ships horn at all; it was a young man blowing into a beautiful shiny curling pink and white shell…Streaked with sunshine…
The sound filled the street and I wondered at this magnificent world in all its multifaceted beauty.
Today we ran shorter, with a plan to go out again tonight, we covered five miles and included some faster stretches...
I can feel myself more balanced and so glad of the exercises I have been given my Rodja; they are re connecting my body wisdom to the running action, which is in essence jumping on one leg and then the other…
And so I am celebrating the joyous action of jumping, leaping, hopping….
Running free....