Find Your Happy "Pace"

This morning I ran with women I didn't know, at an hour that my waking mind hasn't known since last winter. Running is the great denominator; these ladies come from all over this area, different ages and different socioeconomic status, but we all can agree that an early morning run is both deliciously exhausting and terribly rejuvenating. I have learned quite a bit over the past few months about life during my runs, as cliche as that may sound. At certain times in a run you can be thinking about everything and nothing; you can feel pain and energy simultaneously running through you as your muscles fire away as needed. What I enjoy the most is the patience that comes with running with other people. I suppose that some might be annoyed or discouraged when the people they are running with slow them down or force them to go faster. You need patience to find a happy pace, and patience to keep yourself close to the others. But rewards can come for that patience: the deer peering over the manzanita, the lake glistening with the morning sun, the scent of tall cedars waking up with the gentle breeze. You learn things about other people while running with them, things they share and things you observe. You learn things about yourself when you run as well. How strong you are. How brave you are. If you are a leader or a follower. What really is important.

The most wonderful idea that has transpired in my runs in the past week or so is that the absence of worry in a person's life is directly related to their happiness. If we shoot our worries out of the air and let them fade into the distant horizon, most of the time they will return as blessings; or at least as situations that have taken care of themselves. Worry does so little to the actual subject it is related to, but it can be so detrimental to the worrier themselves. So let it go - whatever it may be.