Reality: A Moving Event

Running is weird. The human body is weird. And the way we experience it is weirdest of all.

I get these little injuries you see, by running 10kms (approx) daily. They sort of make sense, when I tred on glass or trip on a curb etc, but also they don’t!

The other day I had a lump appear on the outside of my right foot. Then my left knee has occasional days of just NOT wanting to come to life. It’s all connected somehow probably but the evolution of it all, when I just keep on walking, stretching, sleeping, dancing, running etc is most interesting of all…

What is reality after all? This moment, this second, this story (RIGHT NOW) that we experience consciously as beings (and as runners)…

It’s not a second, and not even a milisecond, because that can also be divided into a tinier ‘moment’ also. So equally it’s a whole year or a lifetime - that’s also reality, also a moment, in the grand scheme of things at least.

Nothing, perhaps, is WHAT IT IS. But, instead, I suspect it’s a moving story, a changing, evolving event that encompasses our lives within it, as well as everybody else’s. Your relationship is not anything, but infinite related moments, changes, interactions etc that we start to name as something. Your body also, and your mind too.

The lump on the side of my foot, much like ANY injury, is an event being lived out second by second. It is not a problem, an injury, an issue, it simply IS WHAT IT IS…

How can we become simply ‘interested’ and curious in ourselves and in each other? Can we identify so lightly and playfully with our lives, and our society, in such a way as to let things come and go with the wind - or rather to enjoy them AS THEY ARE without labelling and controlling them?

This could be THE most important training for any runner / athlete / human being that there is… to accept and embrace the reality of one’s situations and oneself.

Perhaps you have certain genetic or accumulated weaknesses or qualities in your body that means you’ll never run a 2:30 marathon; maybe you simply don’t have the bone density and physical structure to successfully compete in MMA'; or you’re too old, realistically, to follow some wild dream you’ve only just realised.

Could it be that that’s exactly where you need to be - the slow one in the group that provides the support and grounding to other faster ones; or the teacher that has learned to educate others very well precisely BECAUSE he/she could never do it themselves.

Sometimes we understand things better when we are apart from them; detached and contentedly looking in from another angle…

This is absolutely my experience of teachers/coaches that I’ve worked with throughout my life so far, and how I experience my own progress as an educator and as I get older and more realistic with my own goals.

TRY THIS:

> Write 5 sentences that very plainly, simply, express the reality of you as a person (or as a ‘runner’ or ‘athlete’ if you like)…

EG. I find it very painful in my knees when I run / I can not run faster than 4 hours at marathon distance / I struggle to get out of bed in the morning some days

… stay with it, feel it… what happens then?

Is there change, movement, evolution? Or perhaps simply acceptance, compassion, trust?

You might even feel angry, sad or jealous etc… that’s also fine.

Reality is moving always, as are you. When we run we join the natural movement of the Earth, the evolution of all things and become one with our own changing lives and stories.

Happy journeying folks and happy running to all those real monks out there <3

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