Doing it Backwards!

Today I had the urge to do it backwards!


Before you think I’ve gone all kinky on you, let me explain; I woke up feeling tired and my body was sore and stiff from last night’s soccer game, not to mention the game I played a couple of days earlier. Also my mind was swimming in a murky pea-soup of a fog, likely due to increasing tensions in an area of my life which has recently culminated in an unpleasant change. I knew I needed a short easy run to work it off and clear out the blue funk, but none of my routes were “calling me”. What to do?


I made a pot of coffee and contemplated the possibilities. It was a beautiful morning, I just had to get out there. Then it came to me...I would step out of my running-route “comfort zones” and run one of my short easy routes backwards. My routes (approximately 7 of them) are formulated so that the long, steep hills occur near the beginning or the middle of the run. I like the last part of the run to be mostly down hill or flattish (there isn’t really a lot of flat terrain in my running neighborhood) so I can “coast” home or run at warp speed, depending on the mood. The idea of a backwards route was enough of a motivation to get me going and I hit the pavement in shorts and sunglasses...also a first this year...and in a new light.


The view from the backwards route was startlingly different. I felt like I was running in a brand new neighborhood. It was also 2 hours later than my usual running time, so the sun was warmer and the various smells along the way were different too. The ocean seemed to be a lighter shade of blue and I caught a glimpse of a lovely babbling brook that I can only hear when running the other way. I soon forgot about my stiffness and the pea soup in my brain slowly faded away as I enjoyed the familiar but new surroundings. Before I knew it, I was on the last, long, big hill headed towards home and it wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t able to run it all the way home, but the fast walk felt good and was a nice “cool down” to an awesome easy run.


As humans we often see life as a linear process. We start, we do something and we finish. But what if we chose to turn our whole personal world upside down and inside out and then looked at things from a different perspective. Would our world change? Would it become more exciting? Or maybe become more simple?


Around 1100 AD there lived a wise monk. No one remembers his name, but they do remember his words. His words still echo in the halls of wisdom to this day. 


“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.


When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”


This wise old monk realized one of the key secrets of life - change yourself and the world changes around you. Or better still; change your focus about life and life changes. Wisdom is the art of seeing a bigger picture.


So today, this week, this month, I’m going to look at my life from a different perspective. I’m going to subtract certain things and thoughts from it and focus on being who I naturally am. I’m going to consider that there could be more to the picture of life than what I am seeing right now.


So, as I navigate the aisles of the grocery store this afternoon, I might take a backwards route. And you can bet I will not be buying any lemons, but a basket full of nature’s bounty and then I might just fly on a light beam all the way home.

Running with the Girls

Last week my soccer team was back in action. We have been on spring break since mid March for a much needed rest and to avoid burn-out. I had been waiting for this day with both eager anticipation and nervous dread. Eager anticipation to see if and how my running regime would affect my performance on the field and nervous dread for exactly the same reason.


I arrived at the field earlier than the required 30 minutes before kick-off. It wasn’t a sunny evening, but it was warm with no wind and it wasn’t raining. There were some new faces and some old friends and we all hugged and chit-chatted about how we missed each other and the game over the spring hiatus. I still felt nervousness in the pit of my stomach, but I was happy to be in the good company of some like-minded, strong-spirited women participating in a sport where you run around like mad, all the while trying to kick a ball into a net at the end of the field.


The ages of the women on my team span almost 30 years which means I am playing with women who could be my daughters and women who could be my sisters. It’s awesome! On the soccer pitch we are all equal, regardless of who we are, what we do for a living, whether we are married or not, whether we have children or not, whether we eat meat or not, whether our hair color is real or not, whether we are a size 6 or not. This is a sport that requires us to run around wearing shorts and sporting ponytails while kicking a ball; a sport which requires team work and heart. Our playing together creates energy, usually a positive energy but sometimes a competitive energy. I have experienced both. Warm ups and cool downs are important here, it provides time to connect and vent at a conversational pace as some times things can get a little frenzied mid game out on the field. We have good days and bad days and sometimes these are out of our control. But what matters is how we handle the bad days. We hang in there and support, respect and motivate each other. The team is a safe place to learn to be your best, and everybody’s best is different. I feel fortunate to know and play with these women.


It was the first game of the summer season and we all put in a hard effort and generally had a good ol’ time. We left the field the way we arrived, in high spirits and feeling good about the team effort we put in. And if you’re wondering about my performance? Well let’s just say the running has definitely paid off. I certainly felt fitter, faster and stronger out there and this is the way I like to play. So I guess I’ll keep on running, after all it seems to be good for me.