Love And Friendship Are The Natural States...
As I sit here typing – I am still all slippery, slip slidy from my fabulous massage on the beach, and my hair is all oily too, hanging limply on my shoulders… Chin Chin my Chinese massage lady finished her treatment with a wonderful head massage. It left me very relaxed, and I would have quite happily stayed lying topless on the blue sunbed under the white parasol, for the rest of the afternoon…!
I was topless because I was wearing a running vest with the bra inside, and so it meant it all had to come off…
The first bit of the massage I was lying on my tummy, and then when it came to turn over, I hesitated uncertain as to whether topless sunbathing is ‘done’ in Greece – but quickly decided that even if it isn’t, I would start the trend…
I have been desiring a ‘body treatment’, for awhile, but there seems to a limited amount of osteopaths or chiropractors practicing here – we found none!
But I remembered that last year a ‘flight’ of massage women from China, land on Barbati beach around this time of year for the season…
So we made our way there, and had just finished a delicious ‘Greek salady’ lunch when I saw Chin Chin wandering by… I chased after her and enjoyed a fabulous hour… ‘Tomorrow?’ she asked at the end ! ‘Not tomorrow…’ I replied, ‘But I will be back…’
When I returned to where I had left Anadi, sitting under the trees at the ‘Nautilas bar’ he told me that it is a gift from my great friend Ange… the two of them have been plotting on Facebook together... Thank you thank you Ange!
This morning I ran down to my football field – Anadi hasn’t been running this week because he cut his big toe on a step and he wants it better to come for a long run tomorrow… As I jogged down the hill, a car went by with four men inside who were leaning out of the windows waving and smiling – I think they were some of my new Greek friends, who I only meet running on the trails of the ‘extreme races’ we choose to run here… I waved back enthusiastically…!
Friendships made on the run, friendships made without language, paths that cross for a short while or join together for the length of a running race…
I made a friend like this, when I ran the Edinburgh marathon four years ago … His name was Reuben… We were running along together, matching each other stride for stride from early on in the race…
‘Is this your first marathon’ he asked me after awhile…’ I glanced at him, and replied ‘What year were you born?’ – ‘1982’ he replied… ‘That is the year I ran my first marathon’ I laughed….
It was however, his first marathon and we stayed in step together, all the way until 21 miles, when the head wind we were encountering, got the better of me and so he ran on…
He often pops into my thoughts, a friend made over the span of a couple of hours on the roads in Edinburgh, with hardly a word spoken…
Love and friendship are the natural states; conflict and resistance to connection, the aberration… The more we clear our own hurt, the more we find the friend in every person we meet…
As I sat again with Anadi under the trees, suddenly a couple came towards us, smiling broadly… We had met here last year when we were all staying at Stefanos place; this time they are staying on a different part of the island and yet our paths still crossed once more… As we parted they said ‘We will see you again; karma will make sure of it… we are like magnets…’
I arrived at my football ground… I had set my Tom Tom, to 20 x 200m with 100m recovery… My old session!
I loved it; I felt relaxed and flowing; and no different to the young me… The pace is very different! But it didn’t feel different, because going with the flow is the essence of the experience….
I did notice however that I ‘raise myself’ for an audience…!
A man was walking by, and he called to me words of encouragement… I noticed on the next interval that my HR reached its highest point so far…
Later on a family were walking by, they smiled and said ‘hello’; and the same thing happened on the interval they ‘watched’…
The HR monitor does not lie – and so would appear that I am a bit of a show off!