Some people find running to be a momentary way to clear their head. Others call upon running only when they want to escape a particular situation or person. Yet others seem to run in circles with no real destination, but is running really a thing to be so frowned upon? YES, emphatically, I agree that the physical act of running is not my favorite, and I am admittedly no Forrest Gump. However, I don’t know that running should always get lumped into the “bad” in life, like somehow running is a terrible way to live. I think too often we forget that just as easily as we can run from our past, a terrible situation or any number of people; we too can run toward a goal, a dream or a new sense of purpose. Running, in all its forms, involves some sort of fervent desire to move, to change, whether that be a physical state of being or mental. I like to think about running in the positive view.
I can say with some degree of certainty that I have never been one to run away from people or problems. I guess it’s in my nature, but regardless, I have always felt a need to run toward the danger, to tackle the problem face first and head on. The best I can posit, is that it comes from my incredible type-A personality and my need to cover my fear, even if it is by facing it. Always saying what I think (for the most part), as well as trying to force people into their own level of discomfort always helped increase my own sense of comfort. If I always had the upper hand, or the least feeling of inadequacy, I could make believe that I won.
Feeling stagnant, to me, is the worst feeling in the world. I hate feeling like I have too much time on my hands. Idle hands, yada yada yada…but truthfully, if a person isn’t learning, evolving, growing and running toward a new goal, are they really actively living? I can’t accept that, not for my own life at least. Running around like a chicken without a head is of course not the answer, but sometimes I think that the path in life is often presented when we are charting a course unknown, and that includes running into the dark places. Running into our own mind and seeing what’s happening in the deepest, darkest recesses of our hearts and our heads. Running into the arms of love, unyielding to the hurt and the pain of the past. Running toward a goal that we may have never even known we had, or one we let go of for any multitude of reasons that life can throw at us. Running fervently toward the life, the love, the manifestation of our best self, now THAT I can get on board with. From one very un-athletic woman to the world, I do have the stamina to run toward the dawn of a new and unexplored adventure, and for what it’s worth, I hope we all run just a little faster and a little farther than we did yesterday.
DreamerSD 