Outrun Myself

If only to outrun myself - to find the porous border of the soul and continue on my way. I am drawn to further steps.

~

We become our best selves in the effort and distance of a great run. The place between our personal identity and the world at large becomes thin and porous. We are apt to wander in a realm where we recognize all aspects of self as joined to others. Our reflection is found in the met gaze of another. It is this realization of self in all and everything contained within self that lends us towards offering each step as a prayerful response of wonder. It's a beautiful world - and we are grateful to be runners. Everything is at its best.

Peace,

Eric

Inspiration

We are sought by inspiration. Creativity is a constant field of potentiality. All things exist first in their purest form of thought. Inspiration seeks the means of their manifestation into the world of form. We are the means. Running places us on a receptive path - as we open to nature our mind calms to a stillness that allows us to hear the constant whisper of inspiration. Runners have tuned their inner ear to fine degrees of listening to breath, heartbeat and rhythm of stride. We are primed for inspiration. We listen.

Peace,

Eric

Large And Small Graces

At a certain point in a very long run - our perspective changes. Our personal world expands to match the span of distance that unfolds before and after each step. We are at play within the infinite and yet too our attention is minimized to fascinating details. A raindrop becomes an ocean of exploration and a flower holds a garden of wonder in a single glance. We are beyond observers - we are participants of the large and small graces of the world.

Peace,

Eric

As If The Earth

Rain,
And I stand…willing
Myself as the
Earth –
Grateful in receiving.

~

Distance running is the process of learning to accept each step within its present moment. Beauty is an attribute not found by comparison - it simply is and can be recognized in every form. A period of rain becomes a beautiful experience when we let go of our wishes for something other. Our preferences are noted and the present accepted - therein lies the way of peace. And the experience of knowing beauty.

Peace,

Eric



Done

It's done - 100 miles in 29:05. There's a lot to say on this event. Yet not today. I do want to comment that it was as transcendental and ordinary as expected. Nothing mind shattering. Yes an aspect of my world changed - and new avenues of exploration opened. Also - it hurt. A lot. But not all the time. And if I remembered to stay present the beauty of the day and night was tremendous - and constant. Even in the pouring rain. Maybe especially in the rain.

Peace,

Eric

Going Long

A long race tomorrow - perhaps my farthest yet. My one goal is effortless action leading to the revelation of joy. I want to run happy - knowing that each mile and every step will eventually strip to me to the bone of my essential self. The end of the race will bring me to the continuation of my journey. Our paths go on - always.

Peace, joy,

Eric 

Inspired

We are inspired - each step an open channel to give and to receive. There are two worlds that merge as one. The breath brings the immaterial to life and form. Our steps bridge self to the larger existence of sky and ground. In turn we touch the infinite on all sides. Inspired - we breath, we move, we continue.

Peace,

Eric

Expanding Joy

For the sake of joy and nothing else - we give each step away. Running expands our world. We extend the borders of comfort, effort and distance. Our view becomes a little larger. There is sacred space in all directions. We now see an internal landscape of spacious beauty - and reflect it to the world. It all begins for the sake of joy.

Peace,

Eric

Running - Apart Yet Together

It's the path we tread that binds us - even as we embrace distance and seek the furthest reaches of solitary mind - we are joined in the union of our pursuit. We touch the earth in a common bond of effort. Our breath is shared - drawn from a single source. We are runners. Together.

Peace,

Eric



A Little Prayer Of Possibilities

          May I always dance upon the
edge of possibilities and
know -
That I always have a choice.

~

It's our choice - each step and the possibility of further. Running is the edge to unknown worlds we have yet to be. It's spirit that will lead us there. And the choice to follow - is ours.

Peace,

Eric



Quiet Hours

In quiet hours...I am the
words.

And the page waits to
receive me.

Grateful to be filled.

~

The path is stretched before us an open page - our steps a noted track left in their brief passage. Our life is meant for beauty.

Peace,

Eric


Running Form(less)

And the Buddha said: Emptiness is form. Form is emptiness. A runner thinks in terms of distance. Somehow we know ourselves as formlessness matched to the distance that we run. And too, we sense that distance is contained within our form. So we are at once stillness and the motion curved against it. We are runners and the path of invitation stretched ahead as distance. We are all things at once. And somehow - in the furthest reaches of our travels - it all makes perfect sense.

Peace,

Eric



For You

Our beauty blends to the day like

daffodils in the sunlight -

distinct in shades of

loveliness.

~

Our beauty is distinct and too it blends to the perfection of nature. Running is the reminder of what we are part of - the largeness of the world made whole by even our smallest acts. Everything counts. The distance we run is only measured by the steps we take. We allow ourselves this distinction - we belong in love and beauty.

Peace,

Eric



Invocation

May my steps flow from within and

distance be the after thought of

their completion.

~

An invocation is a powerful tool to bring to surface our original light, love and purpose. Everything accomplished is first known in the depth of heart and mind. We invoke the truth to present awareness - trusting in the reality of its completion.

Peace,

Eric

How To Practice

It's our path - chosen for its beauty and simplicity. Here's how we practice: First there is awareness that the path exist and our every step matters. Running is the flow of spirit and awareness brings us fully into the stream of its reality. We are now on the path and of the path - aware of our emergence by breath and steps. Our attention is placed on the experience of Being. Nothing lies outside this realm. Everything has the potential for meaning. We are aware of our choices. And so comes acceptance. To accept is to allow the present moment in its exact existence. There's no need to insist on change for change is a given constant. Our awareness has granted us the patience to bear witness to the fluidity of life. Acceptance gives us the power of relaxation and the ability to shift our thoughts and actions accordingly. We accept circumstances not in a passive manner but in the strength the found beyond will and determination - by our very surrender to what is we become the catalyst for what will be. We note with awareness, accept what is and appreciate the lesson and beauty of what the moment holds.

Appreciation is realization of life. We have been given a gift and our every thought and action is either a grand gesture of thankfulness or a denial of acceptance. True appreciation is to look fully to the depth of circumstances and find its inherent beauty. No small task. There are times of obvious grace and times when doubt holds sway. Our role is to simply appreciate what is without a wish to make it other. That alone brings a deeper sense of awareness. We see a gift within the negative and use it for the continuation of our journey. The fight to change is over. The witness to all that changes begins. We are grateful for it all.

And so we come to forgiveness. Forgiveness is the end because it allows for new beginnings. It is the realization that all that has taken place has occurred for the single benefit of bringing us the present moment. Forgiveness removes karmic baggage - the sins of thought and body are known as illusions and we are free from their imaginary weight. Running is now light and unencumbered. Fear is reduced as a emotional cloud passing through our mind. We know that we can always begin anew - this is our practice. We have lifetimes to reach perfection.

Peace,

Eric

Run With Care

Tenderness - our steps given to earth with care. We allow ourselves to be received. Running is communication between aspects of the world unheard through better portions of the day. It's the intimate communication of breath drawn holy from the air and feet firm against the ground. It's the world asking for our best. And here it is - our best:

We are stillness released as temporary motion - offered in a strides caress.

Running is the moment of our deepest giving.

Peace,

Eric

First - Show Up

The role of an artist is to simply show up. It's a tremendous act of courage - facing a void that holds our own reflection. We begin life with the creative urge to face the world in the manner of an artist. Small acts of creativity that bend reality to the slant of our existence. We made the world to order. Our Being is to create.Yet unless nourished - the spirit of an artist is lost to harsh fictions inherited from those too who have lost their way from the creative source. An artistic soul in a busy world that no longer bends to their imagination. We're all artist and we're all lost or on the edge of losing the memory of who really are. A practicing artist knows the importance of simply showing up with the will to face the day and allow themselves to be the true expression of beauty. Emptiness is scary only in the thought that we have nothing to give. Once we know and remember who we are - the void is nothing more than a promise to be filled. Emptiness gazing at itself is our potential. Reality again bends to our desires. We create the world anew.

~

We are runners. Artists. Every step will create the miles of a new reality. The first step is to simply show up - ready to run.

Peace,

Eric

Reclaiming

Running is not my recovery  - it is the reclaiming of what was mine but then lost through false layers of identity. I am returning to myself. Every step taken.

Peace,

Eric

Infinite Beings

It's the distance   - always unfolding to the promise of one more step. Running is the moment we meet our potential - and then see it stretched just a little farther on. It's the realization of our place within the infinite. All points extend from our existence. There is nothing far from us -only the illusion of expansion teasing in the play of motion. Running is the joy of knowing we belong. We are infinite beings and distance is our home.

Peace,

Eric

Another Way Of Running

Certain traditions hold that we run to conquer distance - we strive against time, terrain and other runners. There's another way to run. Gently, we awaken to our presence within and beyond our every step. There is nowhere that we are not. The land unfolds for our pleasure and our challenge. All runners exist as an extension of self we have yet to recognize. One way is not better than the other - only different. Our hearts will choose which path to follow.

Peace,

Eric

The Goal

Our great desire is to know ourselves as infinite. Everything else is a minor goal paled against comparison. Runners know this on a subtle level - always seeking expansion even by a single step. Distance becomes our interior landscape projected for our stride to roam. All desires merge into a quest of further. Until at last we come to know - we are the fulfillment each desire. And running simply brought us home.

Peace,

Eric

Runner - Love Thyself

Distance running is a means of self-compassion. It's a punishing activity - physically and emotionally and in that very punishment is the opportunity to practice compassion for the broken parts of body and soul. Kindness will carry us farther than relentless drive. Perhaps it seem contrary to the nature of extremes - yet we are looking further than mere sports. There is a moment in every effort of endurance where the will gives way to something larger. Distance fragments the ego and we are left with the wholeness of spirit exposed through cracks of self identity. Each act of self care, kindness and compassion exposes more of the whole. We need these acts - small gestures of love gifted to ourselves. In the presence of pain, fear, fatigue and depravation it's compassion that lights the way. Too often we wait for the final moments of long held suffering before we turn to love in an effort to heal. There is no need to wait. Begin each run with a commitment to nurturing a sense of self-compassion. By recognizing moments of doubt, fear and suffering we immediately gain access to their antidote. Offering hope to doubt, love to fear and kindness to suffering will open up a greater internal space in which we can take action and correct what we are able to and accept what we must. As our own light grows and shines brighter we lead the way for others to follow- self healing becomes the healing of the world. It all begins with kindness.

Peace,

Eric 

My Simple Running Mantra

We run from the center - and the world extends around us. There is no place we don't belong. Our every step is perfect in its placement. Enjoy this very moment.

Peace,

Eric



Finding Holiness

Anything will reveal its holiness when given our attention. Running far is a reflection of an interior distance waiting to be known. We run - to find our holiness.

Peace,

Eric



The Games We Play

Running is the illusion of our confinement. Racing is the thought that we are somewhere others have yet to reach. Both are games we play with joy. But don't believe they're true. There is no place beyond our presence. There is nowhere that we are not joined together. We are infinite Beings playing in finite games. Smile - and remember to have fun.

Peace,

Eric 

Perfect Timing

With the infinite stretched in all directions - running is the illusion of our departure and arrival. We are here. Perfect in our timing.

Peace,

Eric



The Secret Of The Buddha's Smile

For me - it always returns to equanimity. I want to run with the Buddha's smile. Here's a secret - equanimity is original mind. All things pass through it. Nothing stays. A world may drift by in thought forms of existence - birth, death and a lifetime in between - and still the Buddha smiles. He knows the mystery of their passage. Everything returns to original mind. Distance stretches before each run - smile.

Peace,

Eric



Anima Mundi - World Soul

It's called Anima mundi - the world soul. It's why we run. Once it was believed that in the depth of being there were no distinctions. We were an intricate part of a larger whole - connected, vital and inseparable in meaning. There was no place where the world left off and we began. Only a continuous flow of existence. One soul.

Once we believed - but now our faith is often soulless. We've lost contact with the world. We believe in the material over immaterial, accumulation over sharing and distinctions over wholeness. It's time for us to return, to find our place within the web of all things.

And so we run. Running again connects to us to earth and air. Each step becomes prayerful remembrance of origin and every breath a celebration of given life. We belong again. The world has reclaimed the lost part of its soul.

It's why we run.

Peace,

Eric



Thin Places

The ancient Celts called them "thin places" - spots within the material world worn thin through the press of heaven. The presence of God is felt strongly here, the whisper of spirit heard keenly, and insights often granted. Temples in the halls of nature. The world is holy by extension of creation - what comes of God is God. Yet Thin Places stand alone and apart in holiness - they are fingerprints in the reach of God.

I often wonder if we are wearing thin our own holy places by the repetition of steps through distance. Are we drawn to lonely spots of mind and nature not to search for the edge of self but to touch the edge of heaven?  

Thin Places exist and our spirit yearns to know them. Perhaps running is the means of our arrival.

Peace,

Eric