Running With Paradox

We don't arrive at distance. Every step becomes

our home. And still there's always

more.

~

In the acceptance of paradox we are free to move continuously - while stopping on the way. It's all just travel. Motion. Stillness. We are runners, walkers, meditators and nothing. At once. Take every step lightly.

Peace,

Eric 

Revelations

this very step could

be our last

and the runner revealed to be the path

~

Revelations - each step a shift of light and earth and the same story told a thousand times told once more yet heard as new. It's about possibilities. One more step and we could be...revealed to who we truly are.

Peace,

Eric



A Taste Of Something More

a moment - given to

motion

within the infinite path of mind

~

Endlessness - a taste with every step. Perhaps that's why we run? To feel at one with the smallest particles that swirl as the form of our existence - as well as the reach of light from sun and stars pressed against us. The infinite is all directions. Sometimes we feel as if we could run forever. It's only a moment. Yet it's a taste of something more.

Peace,

Eric

The Final Gift

And after all, perhaps the final
gift is tenderness.
The faith to love on the
edge of broken parts.
Faith...when all we have is
no clear end,
only the ache of uncertainty.
And still we
reach
towards the jagged edge that's
sure to cut and we bleed
our touch in a tender
offering of
hope,
despair, and maybe something
more we can't name,
but know in silent
moments.
Perhaps the final gift is not
blood...but our
ability to
bleed and bleed
some
more when all we wish for is
dried away and still we
bleed more.
Perhaps the final gift is
this- these blood soaked
tears...when it's all we have to

offer.

~

Letting go - and through this we find the infinite space from which we learn to give. I first and most deeply learned this lesson from my mother in her last years with Alzheimer's. Her final gift was this lesson - there is always more to give. It's our nature. I relearn this lesson every race and through the distance of my very long runs. It's not a lesson of will power and how much my mind and body is able to give. No, the lesson is always on the subject of love. Here it is: can we love ourselves through broken parts? Are we able to love our very brokenness? And more - are we able to find the wholeness of our being through the cracks that ache from this expansion? The lesson is always on the subject of love. The answer is always yes.

~

Perhaps on a race or long run we could ask ourselves this - can I love myself through the very next step?

Peace,

Eric



Running Out Of Power

We are powerless - even as we believe strength of

will and body will carry us through

distance.

In truth - only distance holds power. The infinite inviting steps for

further exploration.

All we do is surrender.

And accept the

invitation.

~

There is power. But it's not ours. Yet we can surrender to it and in process reveal ourselves as one with it. Power is in the whole. The infinite. It's who we are in our deepest surrender. Running is a great revelation for this. It never ends. Only arbitrary numbers loom in the illusion of a finish. Still distance stretches ahead. In our surrender we will see that there is no finish - and more we too stretch ahead in the infinite view of who we are. We're endless.

That's power.

Peace,

Eric

Running As Stillness

In reality there is no quiet mind. Our stillness is a further depth existing on its own accord. Thoughts happen. They appear and pass and again become in their own fleeting wave. It's the nature of the mind. Yet our truth is much different. Our nature is stillness itself and the impartial witness to all that passes. We are the presence that observes the mind. At one time I believed that running led to stillness. I glimpsed the quite mind and thought my steps would take me there again. There is no need to be taken to reality. It was running, distance, far distance, that revealed an intrinsic stillness that never waivered. I am stillness and all things pass through this. You are stillness and all things pass through you. We are stillness.

So there is no need to resist the mind. No reason to believe that thoughts carry any weight through our existence. The mind thinks. We exist.

Peace,

Eric

Stories

No story told - and the path leads

only to a quiet

mind

~

Allow things to simply be. A hill is not measured by effort to reach its summit but by the length of beauty that's extended. Beauty is not a story. It simply is. It's the mind that searches for a contrast. Distance is a story. Our steps know motion. They know rest. How far is just a belief offered to the body. We are free to accept and free to deny. Certainly we grow tired. The body is finite in its resources. Rest as needed. Eat. Drink. Care for both mind and body. Here's the thing about stories: they are neither false nor true. They are simply a narrative - commentary told by mind. Who are they told too? Who is listening? That's the secret.

Peace,

Eric