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Connecting our minds and bodies with humanity

Connecting our minds and bodies with humanity

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I’ve written time and again that one of  my many reasons why I enjoy running is the solidarity I feel as a result—solidarity with nature, with my body, with the city (or park) environment where I’m running, whatever.  It often mellows me out while simultaneously heightening my awareness, strange as that sounds.  I’m mellowed and at peace, yet I couldn’t be more alert.

Saturday’s longish run was one of those runs that reminded me why I value running as I do.  Because the movers were coming at 8, I left the new place at 5:30—much earlier than usual for a long-run Saturday morning—so I could get back in time.  The run was just beautiful: there were few runners on the path, just a handful of cars on LSD, and did I mention that I was running as the sun was rising?

It was seriously romantic.  Seriously.

The run ended up just feeling majestic.  I wasn’t particularly aiming for it, but my splits were right where I wanted them to be, and I couldn’t stop thinking “how do people NOT do this???”

Just a few days before, I read an interesting piece on NPR about monks who perform “marathon walks” as part of their training on their paths to enlightenment.  You can read the story here; it’s really pretty incredible.  (I thought that doing one long run each week was intense, but these guys put me to shame).

Apparently, other folks these days must also be feeling the mind-body-running connection.  Just this morning, Runners’ World “Kick in the Butt” email supplied me with this inspirational quote:

“With a body made joyous through movement, the mind is able to relax.  With mind/body balance, we can take the power of feeling good and generate compassion.”

—The Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche

Go generate some compassion today.  Your mind, body, and the whole of humanity, will thank you for it.

I thought this was spring – and am I really seeing blue, orange, or yellow trees?

I thought this was spring – and am I really seeing blue, orange, or yellow trees?

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Well, according to the calendar anyway, it’s spring.

Last Saturday was a pleasant, comfortable 18.5 miles (bad math on my part- can you tell?).  I’m getting back into the swing of distance running now since we’re approaching a month out from last month’s Boston — and especially since South Bend will be coming right around the corner here.  I left the new place around 6:15, and Mother Nature greeted me with the very finest May –ahem, “springtime”–weather: a cold, mist-like rain, fierce northbound winds, and temps that felt like they were in the high 30s, though the thermometer read closer to mid-40s.  I was comfortable enough to sport shorts, a long sleeve, and a short sleeve, but I saw loads of people along the path donning cold weather gear – long tights, hats, gloves/mittens, and the like.

Did I mention that Saturday was May 8???  Unbelievable.

And to answer the latter, yes, I am seeing blue, orange, or yellow trees these days.

I had noticed these trees, that are apparently painted either orange or blue or yellow, or some combination therein, for some time in Lincoln Park, around miles 5.0-6.0 (near North Ave or the Lincoln Park Zoo), but never really did any research into it.  In fact, some of these trees have moved recently and are now located on LaSalle Ave, relatively close to the North Ave. boathouse and Lake Shore Drive.  I thought these strangely, brightly-painted trees were some sort of travelling art exhibit, if anything.  Turns out, it’s that, along with the Park District’s creative way of coding which trees will be getting axed later this year (apparently because the trees are really invasive and are probably damaging the surrounding ecosystem).

Local media covered these wildly-colored trees late last month here and here, if you’d like to read more.  And here’s a video that takes about Chicago’s “painted forest” — kinda sounds Alice in Wonderland-esque, if you ask me…

I suppose we all see or hear things that we can’t believe are real when we’re out on a run, especially the long ones.  Rest assured though that I, too, saw the trees last weekend 🙂