The Tao of Distance Running - #47

The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.

                                                                       *

~
Our steps are insular in their completion. Distance itself is
our home - and in this recognition there is no
need to strive.
With all things complete we enjoy the illusions of
miles even as we know there is no
destination.


Every step is our arrival.

• Every step is complete - each holds an arrival and departure in their moment on the earth. We collect steps within a stride and at once the path welcomes us in our completion. There is nothing left to be done, nowhere we have to go and distance becomes the means of realization - we are home. Knowing this we no longer strive to reach a finish measured by anything other than our own arrival. We run by our own standards - obeying outer rules while engaged in our own inner conversation of events. A race becomes a gathering of singular aspects of the whole - runners each belonging to a greater completion still. There is no one to beat when our steps are matched in union. There is only joy - a happiness born of knowing who we are and why we are here and having nothing left to prove. We are complete. 

Peace,

Eric

Portion of the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell