Posts Tagged ‘joy’
Simplicity and clarity, the parents of joy.
Posted in Gratitude, tagged Antoine de Saint Exupery, Gratitude, inspiration, joy, love, nature, Oregon, photo, quote, simplicity on January 5, 2014| 2 Comments »
Aloha Friday: ‘To Be Alive’ by Gregory Orr
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Aloha Friday, beauty, Gratitude, Gregory Orr, joy, love, peace, poetry, writing on January 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »
To Be Alive
To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That’s crudely put, but…
If we’re not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?
~Gregory Orr
Aloha Friday! Flying High
Posted in Gratitude, tagged Christmas, fire lookout, gift, glider, Gratitude, holiday, joy, love, meditation, peace, present, wooden glider, yoga on December 20, 2013| 2 Comments »
Some gifts take years to make, some take even longer to unwrap.
Some gifts come only when our mind and heart are open enough to accept them.
Be generous to give all you can, and humble enough, to receive what you can’t.
Clarity, Love, Abundance, Growth.
Aloha Friday, Pacific Transmission.
Posted in Gratitude, tagged beach, color, joy, light, love, nature, ocean, pacific ocean, photo, picture, Sunset, waves on November 15, 2013| 1 Comment »
Happy Aloha Friday! May your day be filled with an ease of spirit and abundance of grace. May the sun’s rays find you at least for one brief moment. Let fresh air fill your lungs, and find one place to sit, and be still, long enough to feel thankful for the moment to do so. Share your day with a friend, tell someone you love them, even if it’s just yourself. The weekend is ahead, the week is behind, keep sailing my friends! Clarity, love, abundance, and growth.
On running faster.
Posted in Running, tagged Ashland, Ashland Oregon, athlete, athletes, beauty, Grand Teton, Grand Teton National Park, inspiration, joy, marathon, mojo, motivation, nature, Oregon, peace, racing, run, running, trail running, training, ultras on October 31, 2013| 4 Comments »
I run because it makes me a more peaceful person. In somewhat addictive fashion I’ve found the harder, faster, and farther I run, especially in nature, the longer lasting and more profound that peace becomes.
Training my mind and body to run faster is a journey that is simultaneously inspiring and stressful. The stress comes from my expectations, having faith I will overcome the challenge, learning patience and setting realistic goals as my mind and body slowly evolve and adapt to my training. The inspiration is placing myself into a situation that will glean more from my physical, mental, and emotional self than I previously imagined. The true moment where I find myself saying, “I didn’t know I could do it until I did.”
As an athlete, I find there are those days when running is a celebration, like a wedding. A demonstration and proclamation of hard work, training, and dedication, where I place all my heart and trust and commit to one magical moment, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, forever until I take my last stride. True love and dedication. In the words of Joseph Campbell, “Find a place where there’s joy inside, and the joy will burn out the pain.” The reality is running faster comes with honest hard work, and knowing that it won’t get any easier, just faster.
To run faster, harder, stronger, I find purpose and intention are absolutely necessary. Like a warrior called into battle, it’s harder to fight if you don’t know what you’re fighting for, and it’s impossible to fight if you don’t know what side you’re on. The same is true in running, you have to know how far you intend to take it, your goals, inspirations and motivations. In short, you’ve got to have the mojo!
Matter is made of molecules, elements attracting, bonding, and repelling, to create structures and forms recognizable and identifiable with the naked eye, telescope, or microscope. However, in running and finding peace, I have found there are more important forces at work, more subtle, yet equally vital components, the molecules of mojo. The molecules of mojo are not made of elements found on the periodic table in your old high school science text. The molecules of mojo circle and whirl, they fill your lungs and bloodstream, they condense on the tips of you hairs, you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell them, all at once. You can suddenly find yourself amidst a glorious cloud of mojo, or it can hit you like a lightning bolt. The effects can be instantaneous like crossing an invisible threshold, or it can develop slowly like the crescendo of an orchestra.
The two elements of the mojo moleceule are beauty and rhythm. The beauty and rhythm in your body, stride, breath, and movements. Beauty and rhythm of the natural world around you in its array of seasons, colors, moods, and appearances. From craggy mountain tops to velvety meadows, rushing alpine creeks to calm deep lakes, rain filled skies stirring your souls thunder and sunny blue mornings clearing your head.
Mojo is high, there are magical portals awaiting me and treasure where I least expect it, I’ll know them when I get there because the hair will raise on the back of my neck, my feet will feel lighter, and my legs will move faster. The rhythm will be beautiful, and the beauty will be the rhythm.
“One, two, one, two, hop-hop says the rabbit.”