Peace and Solitude

"I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. Every time I walk out the door, I know why I'm going where I'm going, and I'm already focused on that special place where I find my peace and solitude." ~ Sasha Azevedo

A perfect, nature-filled day! I made sure to drink tons of juice and water yesterday and this morning and I don't kow if it was being better hydrated or just that my cold/cough has pretty much run its course after 2 weeks, but I felt so much better running this morning.

I ran for 2 1/2 hours and didn't see a single other person the whole time. It was heavenly! I am defintely a loner when it comes to running. I crave the solitude and the quiet. I love being able to run as fast or as slow as I want, to stop and just listen if I want, to veer off on a trail that catches my eye. Occasionally the thought of running with someone else is appealing but for the most part, I highly prefer going solo.

The weather was a bit cooler than it's been for the past few days but it felt great. I saw 2 beautiful red tailed hawks, a coyote, tons of squirrels, and about 20 deer. I heard woodpeckers banging the trees and little peeper frogs already croaking. I found a beautiful feather and saw so many pine cones.

One of the trails I chose today was covered in a carpet of dry grass with bits of green shooting up among the brown ~ a beautiful sight. The sky was overcast and the woods felt almost eerie at times. I chose a totally different path to run today - actually lots of different paths - and I will run them again as they were beautiful. I really love running in the winter and spring - no mosquitos, no extreme heat. I love the way the bare branches look pressed against the winter sky.

I woke up almost nervous about trying to make it 14 miles today after my fiasco of a run last weekend and how I've felt this week, but the morning could not have been any better. I am filled with peace and quiet and alone time to get me started on this week!

Celebrating Friendship

"Life is partly what we make it and partly what it is made by the friends we choose." ~ Tennessee Williams

My daughter and I had our 3rd annual Love and Friendship Tea today. We have the best friends in the world. Our home was filled with friends we've had for a lifetime and others who have crossed our paths just this year. People from 5 years old to those in their 70's came to celebrating friendship with us today, and I feel so very blessed.

The kids mostly played out in the yard and in the woods - climbing trees, playing hide 'n seek, running, swinging on the tire swing. The temperature was really mild with blue skies and a slight breeze, ideal of being outdoors.

The grown-ups wandered in and out checking on the kids, eating, laughing, visiting, catching up with old friends and making new ones. I love having a conglomeration of people over and seeing who enjoys talking to whom. I love the circle of friends we have attracted to us and felt so happy today to have so many of them in the same place.

Many of my friends were otherwise occupied or out of town today, but I am filled with their presence today anyway. I went through a period of time when I did not feel like I had many friends, but somehow having this yearly get-together emphasizes for me how lucky I am to have so many special people in my life and in the life of my daughter. I love setting aside one day every year to consciously focus on them and really appreciate their presence in my life. It inspires me to want to nurture these friendships even more in the days to come.

Rockin' Along

"...I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh that was!My very heart leaped with delight at the sound." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

I have been feeling so poorly. Very unusual for me. I usually have too much energy! That's one thing running is good for - somewhere to put all of that movement. But for the past week and a half, I've felt really unlike myself. I am making it through my days and then sleeping tons at night. Surely it will pass soon...

In the midst of all of this, I have really had a busy, nice time. I took 2 days off work to be with my daughter during her winter break. I did really BIG things on those days which were great. On Friday, we took out literally every single thing from her room and moved in some beautiful antique furniture that was my great-aunt's and great grandmother's. She is thrilled with her room.

Then on Saturday, we spend the day with my mom and 2 of my daughter's friends almost completing a new alphabet book we have been thinking about and working on for months. It's been an amazingly fun project and I love that the three of us are working on it together. I have contacted the printer and my friend that is going to lay it out so we will have a book before too long!

On Sunday, I had scheduled to run 13 miles and I did, but it was just miserable. I was out in the woods on my favorite trails on a lovely, warmish day so it should have been heaven, but I just felt awful. I was dehydrated a bit and that didn't help. I did see some deer and lots of birds and it was not too muddy so that was wonderful. I stopped and stretched and walked a bit and even sat down on a stump at about 10 miles and rested! I made it back to my car all in one piece and had a good feeling of accomplishment that I was done!

Monday we celebrated Valentine's Day, and we went to ride horses which is always so relaxing and fun. I took lots of pictures and enjoyed being outside a lot.

And other than that, I've not been inspired to do much of anything - not reading, not cooking, just lots of sleep! We are having our annual Love and Friendship Tea tomorrow and I'm looking forward to having lots of friends over and celebrating Love and Friendship!

Reflection

This picture makes me happy :)

Stopping to Notice

"The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention." ~Julia Cameron

I love birds. This fellow was in a pine tree by a very still pond when I was running at Callaway Gardens last weekend. I watched this heron and another one fly around, back and forth across the pond. I walked along a little dirt trail next to the pond to get a closer look and picture of it. This one flew up in the tree and remained there until I could get pretty close. I always wish I had my "big" camera at times like this, but truth be told if I had to trade one in, it would be the big one and I'd keep my little handheld Olympus. I usually carry it when I run and stopping to take pictures of things along the trails and paths I take is a huge part of the enjoyment of running for me. Sometimes I hear things calling to me, urging me to stop and notice them, to take their picture, or just enjoy their beauty.

Beautiful sights and sounds I've stopped and noticed the past week include:

~the way the sunlight hits part of a tree while the other part is in the shade

~a shining white trunk of a tree with its white branches reaching up into a clear blue sky

~the sound of a woodpecker knocking on a bare tree

~the whooshing noise of the wind blowing in my ears as I sit on a tree stump

~the mournful cry of geese by the river

~the soft bubbling of a tiny stream racing over the rocks

~the green of pine needles standing out in the brown of the winter forest

~swirling patterns in ice formed by small puddles on the trail

~beautiful deer frozen in the woods as I pass by, their large, soft ears standing at attention

There are so many beautiful moments in life. Sometimes all we have to do is stop and notice.

"Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic energy striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time." ~Brenda Ueland

Almost 21

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The carriage held but just ourselves
and Immortality."
~ Emily Dickinson

Part of what I love about running is the stumbling - sometimes literally! - across sites I wouldn't see if I weren't running along a particular path. This gravesite is off in the woods, off the main trail and completely by itself. One of my absolute favorites running spots is in a battlefield with tons of monuments and cannons and signs detailing the Civil War battle as it raged through for several days. But this grave stands totally alone and isolated.

I came across Jonathan Bull's gravestone a couple of years ago and am fascinated and saddened at the same time by this boy who lost his life the day before he turned 21. His family apparently found his body and either buried him where he fell or erected this monument in his memory. I wonder if he still lies beneath the soil here. I always stop for a moment when I pass by and say a prayer of peace for his soul. I add a rock to this spot and others do too because these are not all mine.

I wonder who Jonathan was. Who found him lying here - mortally wounded or already deceased? What family did he have that mourned him? What sort of life did he live before the war? I would like to find out and tell his story somehow. I hope his family would be comforted by the fact that he is not forgotten.