Running the Race

For anyone who has walked/run a race, you can understand the gush of adrenalin that lights your feet. This is what is planted in my mind of the recent Portland Half-Marathon last weekend, the celebration of freedom. 

What I don’t recall much of, is the scenery. I do remember the people on the sidelines, cheering for those they know and for strangers alike. I do remember the kindness, care and encouragement shown to “those on the right” as they were passed by the speedier amongst us. I remember how I felt when I witnessed a t-shirt that supported the life of someone lost or battling an illness. I remember the woman older than I whose t-shirt said “Don’t Quit” as she passed me.

What I don’t remember are the long stretches between “fuel”, the sun beating down on me when I squinted through my sunglasses, the tightness at the back of my knee at 17 kilometres. I don’t remember those things because I was part of a larger group. A group which had done what we could to prepare and put faith in our training. 

And so it should be in our everyday life; don't focus on the trying times, look for support and a smile when you need it, encourage others, prepare for your goal, and keep going.

Celebrate wherever you are in your race, whatever it might be. If you don’t quit, you are always a Winner.

We are bound together

What I have learned, did not happen in the vastness of a library or reading in Wikipedia. What I’ve learned came through “Being”. From dark and lonely nights, from sick children and from holding up the mountain on my own. My quest for wisdom came through the pain in my heart.

"Your breaking heart makes room for your soul's work to be done".*

Everyone would like to learn easily but it is not the way of the Universe. We try to teach our children lessons without them suffering, but they will not grow with the confidence of success unless they too struggle as we did. We tell them, try this, try that, it will be so much easier for you than it was for me. But they do not listen because we all know that we must find our own specific lesson to growth.

As Caroline Myss says " At the end of the day, my true theology is that all life breathes together, moves together, heals together, and suffers together. How can it be otherwise? The illusion is that we are separate from each other".

We are bound together.

Portland, Oregon

* this is a quote from a much longer piece about Betrayal. It is something I kept from a long time ago but I have no recollection as to where I read this. If you know what these words are from, please let me know!

Spanning the Divide

Bridge in Portland, Ore.

Sometimes you can work alongside and know nothing more than a person’s title. Or by perchance, in a brief few minutes, you can be invited into a window of someone’s CORE.

In conversation with someone new who works in my building, I heard and learned a fascinating story. A refugee from Ethiopia, in 7 years he has brought to Canada, his (now) wife and a handful of family members. He and his wife now have 2 (he said joyously) Canadian children.

He has a degree in the environmental sciences and his wife worked as an engineer. Neither were able to secure similar employment in this land of freedom, they both do work with their hands. He said that he has done 1, 2, or 3 jobs simultaneously to get ahead. “It will not last forever and I am doing this for my children. I am the Bridge.”

"I am the Bridge." (Click to Tweet)

Are you a Bridge? Have you or are you in this very moment, putting aside your own dreams/needs and desires to make it better in the future for someone else?

Ralph Marston’s words are posted at my desk. When I am feeling weary, I read these words to hold me up. Because if we each built a Bridge, how far could we go?