River Run

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

I love having so many running options available to me every day. Downtown streets, mountain trails, paths by the river. Today was a 7 mile run by the river. The weather was just perfect. I love crossing the bridge over the river and feeling a cool, almost cold breeze and watching my breath materialize in the air beside me.

Instead of deer and owls, today I saw heron and geese and lots of small birds - blue jays, doves, cardinals, mockingbirds. We have had lots of storms recently so the river was high. I ran right beside the edge of the water which was up pretty high along the path. Being outside, especially first thing in the morning, is one of my favorite parts of any day. I am focusing on being very aware of everything around me - the sweet gumballs left dangling from bare branches, the different calls the birds make, the lap of the water along the riverside, the sun as it hits the water and bounces off in a glare of light, the bare white trunk of a tree reflecting in the water, the cries of the geese as they fly low and land in the water.

I love the feeling of having had such a special experience already by 9:00 in the morning when my day starts with running outside, taking pictures, and finding a still place within myself that I carry with me for the rest of the day.

Making Time

"My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy".--John Bryant

John Bryant is really onto something in that quote! It's all about making time for the things that are important to living the kind of life that I want to live. I have been setting my clock 20 minutes early to being incorporating a yoga practice into my days. It's something I've felt drawn to for years, and I've dabbled in yoga here and there, but I've never really made a commitment to it. So as much as I love to sleep, I am making a choice to get up and practice yoga to start my day. It makes me feel so good - mentally and physically.

Most days I am able to take my daughter to school and then run before going to work. Today it was POURING down rain, complete with thunder and lightning. Once I've showered and dressed and am at work, it's so much harder to change into running clothes, run, take another shower and go back to work or go home for the evening. But running is important to who I am so I left work in time to get 5 miles in today before I picked up my daughter after school. And I am so glad. As with the yoga - it makes me feel so good!

I have woven running into my days very regularly for the past decade - hard to believe! It's definitely a choice to make every day - to run or to not run. I'd like to think of other things I want to make part of my life and add them in gradually so they become routines too, part of the fabric of my days.

Winter Woods

"Go to the winter woods: listen there, look, watch, and “the dead months” will give you a subtler secret than any you have yet found in the forest." - Fiona Macleod, Where the Forest Murmurs

I love the bare beauty of the woods in winter. The stark branches silouetted against the sky, the blanket of leaves that covers the forest floor, the quiet that fills the air. At a glance, everything is brown and gray, dead, lifeless, but if you open your eyes, the woods are still full of color and sound and beauty.

Today 3 deer bounded into the trees at my approach, white tails flicking as they jumped out of sight. A tiny chipmunk skittered across the trail to avoid my feet. A hawk keened from high in the trees, and a single owl hooted in the distance.

Color filled the woods when I opened my eyes and looked beyond the gray branches and piles of moist leaves. A tree stump blackened from a bolt of lightning stood broken at the edge of the woods, bright orange fungi decorated a fallen branch, brilliant red rocks scattered across the trail, soft green moss clung to the roots of a tree, golden clumps of wood shone through a broken tree limb.

A perfect winter run.

Gorgeous Sunrise!

“Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there.” ~ Robb Sagendorph

Exploring New Paths

The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the divine.
— Plato

I had the day off work yesterday and had the most wonderful day all to myself. I had been reading about a Sandhill Crane Festival that was held an hour or so from my home and decided to go and see these birds. Unfortunately, you needed a really long zoom lens or some very powerful binoculars to actually see much of them. Apparently around 5,000 birds are in the area and I could see lots of them from afar. A few flew overhead making this haunting call and I got a few pictures that at least show that I saw some birds! I enjoyed being outside and hearing them anyway!!

Then I went to a Cherokee Removal Memorial that was very moving. What a sad chapter in American history and what a horrible way to treat other human beings.

I finished my day with a couple of hours of exploring some new trails at a new-to-me Nature Park of around 3,000 acres. The trails were awesome! I was going to run around 3-5 miles, but I started out and just kept going. The trails wound around and around and up and back and were just beautiful. Quite a few mountain bikers were taking advantage of the day and I saw one pack of about 5 runners but other than that I had the place to myself.

My favorite area was a pine tree forest that smelled so sharp and clean. Light brown needles lined the path where I ran and darker needles filled the woods under the trees. Occasionally a clump of bright green, newly fallen needles lay across the trail. I picked on up and rubbed it on my hands so I could keep smelling the pine scent as I ran. The trees were fairly close together and the whole area had the feeling of an outdoor cathedral. The quiet was so present and the spiritual nature of the place was something I could almost touch.

I saw one deer with huge ears. It bounded off the trail at my approach but stopped in the woods and turned to stare at me for several minutes as I stopped to gaze into its eyes. It stomped its foot a couple of times and bowed its head and then just stood and looked at me. I love deer and always feel a special kinship to ones that stop like this and share the moment with me.

I left the woods filled with a tiredness in my body and a peacefulness that lasted for hours after I got home. A perfect day!

City Run

" I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



A day off from work and an unexpected "long" run today. I ususally do my long runs on the weekend, but it's so nice mentally to enter the weekend knowing I have it under my belt already! I ran 7 miles yesterday and my legs felt tired today, but I ran a different route than I usually do and it was nice having some new things to look at to distract my attention.


This was a different kind of run than I usually enjoy Running, for me, is most pleasureable when I am out enjoying NATURE! I love the trees, river, birds and other critters, fresh air, solitude. Today I ran through the city and saw buildings, trains, cars, people, signs. When I'm running, I often try to focus on staying present, being fully in the NOW. I concentrate on my breath, my footsteps, a mantra. I seek out beautiful things to photograph. This run took me on city streets, and I was definitely present to the business, the sites that I don't often view while running, the traffic, and the need to really pay attention to where I stepped and where I crossed the street. I didn't feel that stillness I often feel after a run though. Mostly just tiredness!

AM Yoga

"The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind." ~Rodney Yee

I have been drawn to yoga over the years. I've taken a few classes here and there and decided several times I'd like to develop a yoga practice, but I've never actually made it happen. I would really like to incorporate yoga into my day-to-day life, and the early morning time seems to be the ideal - and only - realistic time for me to practice. I have been setting my alarm clock 30 minutes earlier than I usually do and doing "AM Yoga" with Rodney Yee. I may not really feel like getting out of bed that early, but I feel so good stretching my body and relaxing and developing a strong feeling of inner peace and stillness at the beginning of my day.