Ready, Set...

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” - Marie Curie

There is so much going on around me that I don't understand. Bombs in Times Square. Oil bleeding into the Gulf of Mexico. More corporate restructuring at work. The situation in Greece. It all seems so unreal, amorphous, so large and important that it cannot be properly seen with one pair of naked eyes. It keeps me awake at night, worried, uneasy, pained.

In a previous post, The Purpose Driven Thought, I mentioned that I ached to take up running, and though I haven't quite turned myself into Jackie Joyner-Kersee, I have started a form of training. Six and a half miles last week. Seven this week! (Ok, ok, it's more walking than running, but still. Baby steps!) It seems that only when I am moving do I feel attached to the world in a way that is authentic and meaningful. Maybe it's because my mind and the body are in tune with each other at the same pace, and that pace is in accordance with New York City's earth, wind and fire.

I am thinking about training for a half marathon. I've been a bit skittish about making lofty goals in the past, but instead of being afraid of a seemingly impossible goal, I'm truly excited by it. Perhaps it's the braces that have taught me the hard won lesson that things really do ameliorate when given careful and consistent nurturing and attention. I have been subconsciously viewing time as an enemy. If a goal looked like it was going to take too long, then my NYC impatience has always derailed me and defeated me before I even began. But now, I realize that though things may take a long time, they don't take forever, and whatever you want, simply because the desire has arisen, is worth the process.

I might not run this half marathon any time soon, but I'm not afraid that I can't. Understanding that I can only took 37 years. Better late than never!