This morning I ran for the first time in about a month. My plan was to run 3 miles but I ran about 4 and every one of them was great. I listened to Crowded House "Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over, hey now, hey now ..." (LOVE that song!) when I first started out, and then I listened to some of U2's Achtung Baby record. Amazing! I LOVE music SO much. Sometimes I forget how much because I just don't listen to it since having had children. I just can't blare it in the car like I used to (and that's my favorite way to listen to it) and at home, the kids rule pretty much, too. But today, music. Ahhhhh! Heaven! Add running to it, which I also just LOVE, and whoa. It's just a wonderful thing.
What I love most about running, other than the feeling of being so deliciously spent, by the way, is the wonderful "Running Thoughts" (I like that ...) you get. It's so cool to be so clear and so connected and so in the moment. Anyway, I memorized 5 words I wanted to remember this run by and write about later and they were: Alive, Art, Poetry, Charisma, and Honesty. I'm SO glad I remembered them!
ALIVE: The first thing I thought about while listening to one of the U2 songs was how lucky I am to just be alive. Like one of the songs said (something to this effect), I'm ready to love, I'm ready to live, I'm ready to sin. I'm alive!
ART & POETRY: I once said I didn't get art at all because you really couldn't tell what the hell artists were thinking when they painted. But that all changed when I went to France and the Louvre Museum. Need I say more? If you've been there, probably not. Let me put it to you this way: I cried when I saw the very first painting. It'd been painted in the 1500's and there it was 500+ years later. It brought me to my knees that someone had committed their art (and heart) to a MONSTROUS canvas (it was HUGE - filled a wall in a room and went all the way up to the ceiling) and that hundreds and thousands of people were still being touched by it. I mean, wow!
So ART. The word came to me because whenever I run I always just "feel" and "feeling" makes me want to express myself artistically by painting and writing and actually even writing Poetry. I actually love to do the latter. I don't do it often and mostly I do it in my head but I do love to. According to my Creative Writing professor at FIU, I'm apparently pretty good too. :-) More on that another time though. (Don't worry I'm keeping a log of future posts so I don't forget!)
CHARISMA: I can't remember why that word came up ... oh yeah, I do, because I think Bono (U2's lead singer) oozes it. I was thinking that charismatic people just LOVE life and people in general and that's why they have that charm about them. They have this connection, this intense, genuine interest in others. Although other people have, I don't know that I'd call myself charismatic but I do consider myself one of those people who is definitely just interested in everything and everyone and is joyous and wants to spread that enthusiasm for life. It's something I really like about me. I love life, man, and I love people to death. I think we could all be very happy and have a much better world.
HONESTY: A U2 song says "You're dangerous because you're honest ..." and that made me think of someone in my past whose mother described as "the most honest person I know." I don't know what was honest about him, however, other than what you saw was what you got; there was absolutely no pretense. If he didn't feel like talking because he was in an emotional mix or for whatever reason, he wouldn't, period. But I don't know that that's what I call honest. Honest to me is someone who can articulate the feelings they're experiencing and not shut themselves off. Honest comes face-to-face with what's so. Honest doesn't run from themselves or others. But maybe I ask a lot of honest. Maybe honest is not necessarily candid or brave, right? And maybe it really was just me who was a wreck. Who knows! Whatever the case, I judge him or myself not. Honestly. :-)
What I love most about running, other than the feeling of being so deliciously spent, by the way, is the wonderful "Running Thoughts" (I like that ...) you get. It's so cool to be so clear and so connected and so in the moment. Anyway, I memorized 5 words I wanted to remember this run by and write about later and they were: Alive, Art, Poetry, Charisma, and Honesty. I'm SO glad I remembered them!
ALIVE: The first thing I thought about while listening to one of the U2 songs was how lucky I am to just be alive. Like one of the songs said (something to this effect), I'm ready to love, I'm ready to live, I'm ready to sin. I'm alive!
ART & POETRY: I once said I didn't get art at all because you really couldn't tell what the hell artists were thinking when they painted. But that all changed when I went to France and the Louvre Museum. Need I say more? If you've been there, probably not. Let me put it to you this way: I cried when I saw the very first painting. It'd been painted in the 1500's and there it was 500+ years later. It brought me to my knees that someone had committed their art (and heart) to a MONSTROUS canvas (it was HUGE - filled a wall in a room and went all the way up to the ceiling) and that hundreds and thousands of people were still being touched by it. I mean, wow!
So ART. The word came to me because whenever I run I always just "feel" and "feeling" makes me want to express myself artistically by painting and writing and actually even writing Poetry. I actually love to do the latter. I don't do it often and mostly I do it in my head but I do love to. According to my Creative Writing professor at FIU, I'm apparently pretty good too. :-) More on that another time though. (Don't worry I'm keeping a log of future posts so I don't forget!)
CHARISMA: I can't remember why that word came up ... oh yeah, I do, because I think Bono (U2's lead singer) oozes it. I was thinking that charismatic people just LOVE life and people in general and that's why they have that charm about them. They have this connection, this intense, genuine interest in others. Although other people have, I don't know that I'd call myself charismatic but I do consider myself one of those people who is definitely just interested in everything and everyone and is joyous and wants to spread that enthusiasm for life. It's something I really like about me. I love life, man, and I love people to death. I think we could all be very happy and have a much better world.
HONESTY: A U2 song says "You're dangerous because you're honest ..." and that made me think of someone in my past whose mother described as "the most honest person I know." I don't know what was honest about him, however, other than what you saw was what you got; there was absolutely no pretense. If he didn't feel like talking because he was in an emotional mix or for whatever reason, he wouldn't, period. But I don't know that that's what I call honest. Honest to me is someone who can articulate the feelings they're experiencing and not shut themselves off. Honest comes face-to-face with what's so. Honest doesn't run from themselves or others. But maybe I ask a lot of honest. Maybe honest is not necessarily candid or brave, right? And maybe it really was just me who was a wreck. Who knows! Whatever the case, I judge him or myself not. Honestly. :-)
posted by Narah at 11:54 PM
