Saturday, November 20, 2010

the hard run


"you run like a river runs to the sea
you run like a river runs to the sea
...oh great ocean, oh great sea
run to the ocean,
run to the sea"
-u2, one tree hill

there's times when we know it's going to be a hard run.

no matter how positive our attitude, no matter how resolute our demeanor, no matter how prepared our bodies, we know we're going to be in for a tough day. and as much as we can try to wrap it up in bright-color paper and shiny foil ribbon, we still know it's not going to be pleasant to open.

it could be because we're injured. it could be because we're tired. it could be because we didn't train and we're woefully out of shape. it could be because it's too hot, or too cold, or too dry, or too wet, or too steep, or too potholed, or too poorly marked, or too much to deal with. or it could be that it's just simply, irrefutably, inexplicably, incredibly, ineffably, indelibly, inscrutably, utterly just not our day. and as much as we can try to give alms for good karma, we still know that it won't make a difference in what's going to happen.

in which case, the only thing we can do then is to endure. courtesy of the few things on our persons that we know won't falter, if only because they are who we are and they are what we are about--at least really, once we've given up or lost everything else: our spirit, our hearts, our souls. our guts. ourselves.

we just need to remember who and what we are. as hard as it is when all the miles seem to be nothing but hard.

it helps to have reminders. things we can recite to ourselves even in the shortness of breath. a poem, a song, a ditty, a rhyme, a passage, a line, a few words to help us bide the time when moments become eons and each step becomes forever and we lose ourselves in the depths of our own suffering. even just a metaphor analogy allusion suggestion that bids us recall our where and our when in the context of all where and all when so that we can make our way once more back to perspective and find the one question that this is all really about is why and realize that we already had the answer but just had to let ourselves remember. even just a lyric long forgotten. as hard as it is when all the miles seem nothing but hard.

and the run isn't so hard then. once we've understood our place in the distance.

because we know it runs with us.

and that makes all the difference.

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