Post-Race Blues
I always really want to be outside.
I have a hard time being still. The worst thing about being in school is sitting down under florescent lights to learn. I don't know how people do it all the time, or why. I guess adults in offices everywhere have grown content with it. Have we forgotten what it feels like to be alive in the dirt and sun, learning from the trees we climb and the streams we jump over? Kids know. We should listen.
I at least have the luxury of going to work at a yoga studio every other day, instead of a typical office. But there are still days when the little skylight above me is not enough and I leave for lunch just to smell the air.
I think if we remembered how mortal we are, we would stop sitting down in buildings.
Our bodies are how we move through the world. Our bodies are how we know the world, how our souls find their place in creation. I remember my place in creation when I'm in the woods. When I see the stars and feel the smooth rocks on the bottom of the river. I remember it when the wind blows at night in the fall, and when the sky turns pink at dawn.
And I have a hard time being still.
My most transcendent moments happen when I'm moving. I can hear God speak then. I can feel the reality of my existence in a bigger story, or actually a smaller story, simple and right. Without the drama of our modern Western world, without the beige walls and bright lights that make up our cities. No wonder we rarely feel content there. No wonder we feel like cogs in the machine. We have squashed our humanity.
There are times when I'm forced to be still. Like after an ultramarathon when my knee hates me, for instance. And it's not that I am addicted to running (not at all...) but I'm hooked on the feeling of knowing my place in creation and feeling the sun on my face and seeing what a few hours of movement can do for my perspective. Without it I live inside buildings that never make me feel very human, and it's really hard for me to connect with Spirit there.
Because I think we are our bodies, in a few important ways, and parking ourselves for the sake of work and learning denies it. If we never recover our bodies we might never find our souls; at least, that's how it feels to me.
I have a hard time being still. The worst thing about being in school is sitting down under florescent lights to learn. I don't know how people do it all the time, or why. I guess adults in offices everywhere have grown content with it. Have we forgotten what it feels like to be alive in the dirt and sun, learning from the trees we climb and the streams we jump over? Kids know. We should listen.
I at least have the luxury of going to work at a yoga studio every other day, instead of a typical office. But there are still days when the little skylight above me is not enough and I leave for lunch just to smell the air.
I think if we remembered how mortal we are, we would stop sitting down in buildings.
Our bodies are how we move through the world. Our bodies are how we know the world, how our souls find their place in creation. I remember my place in creation when I'm in the woods. When I see the stars and feel the smooth rocks on the bottom of the river. I remember it when the wind blows at night in the fall, and when the sky turns pink at dawn.
And I have a hard time being still.
My most transcendent moments happen when I'm moving. I can hear God speak then. I can feel the reality of my existence in a bigger story, or actually a smaller story, simple and right. Without the drama of our modern Western world, without the beige walls and bright lights that make up our cities. No wonder we rarely feel content there. No wonder we feel like cogs in the machine. We have squashed our humanity.
There are times when I'm forced to be still. Like after an ultramarathon when my knee hates me, for instance. And it's not that I am addicted to running (not at all...) but I'm hooked on the feeling of knowing my place in creation and feeling the sun on my face and seeing what a few hours of movement can do for my perspective. Without it I live inside buildings that never make me feel very human, and it's really hard for me to connect with Spirit there.
Because I think we are our bodies, in a few important ways, and parking ourselves for the sake of work and learning denies it. If we never recover our bodies we might never find our souls; at least, that's how it feels to me.
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