Stages Of Running

In the early stages of running (and this stage may last a very long time for some of us) we often run against things - against the clock, against opponents, and even against our bodies and the earth. We pound miles as if we seek to punish the ground with striking steps. We are unforgiving in stride and thought. Stages come in wisdom gained. There is no time limit on growth and we enter a certain stage only when we're ready. Sometimes we enter a stage through grace - effortless as if by grand design. Yet often too we enter through experience found by pain, injury and grief. And sometimes the path is both grace and pain and we are better gained by both. In the later stages of running with spirit we come to accept pain - yet feel no need to seek it as punishment. Pain becomes a by product of our effort and is neither good nor bad - it simply is and we learn to run with it and not against. Grace becomes a guiding a force and can't be sought but only found. We find grace through release and surrender and above all forgiveness. Yes, forgiveness is a factor in running - forgiveness is the release of tension held within a runners mind and body. We learn to forgive the ego's desire to run against any and all things. Forgiveness is earned with a smile and it's that blissful look of someone who has at long last entered the stage of freedom and love of pure motion. Often we are gifted with this stage early in our lives and sometimes too we are given a taste and again fall back to run against the way of spirit. It's enough though - a taste. We now know the reason why we seek the miles and wild places - another taste and perhaps to run there even more. Perhaps forever. Yet this too is just a stage we run through. Nothing last forever but in some ways our steps continue - what comes next? I don't know - but someday my steps will take me there I'm sure.

Peace,
Eric