Road Noise
Living gratefully today, I appreciate all the pictures I have taken over the last forty years or so, and that I have many of them as prints I can hold in my hand or look at in a photo album. I appreciate the ease of saving and editing photos digitally too, but don't see myself giving up the old ways entirely.
When I got home from a few hours at work yesterday, I sat down and made a slide show in honor of my sister Mary Jo. I had plenty of pictures from our younger days and the decades since that I could pull together. It was healing and healthy for me to do this on the first anniversary of her death. Her bright smile came through time and time again. She knew much joy.
As I headed out for an early morning run today, I was thinking about road noise. I heard cars and trucks, the various sounds of varied vehicle sizes, on the county road less than a mile from our house. I thought about the people in those vehicles and if they were on their way to or from work. If they were feeling good about the day so far, what their fears and joys might be. I felt human connection. That is where any healing and unity and progress for our planet must start. Shared connections.
I thought about the road noise I was creating with my footfalls. Thankful for the physical therapy this winter and the exercises I have been committed to since, and how they have helped make my running form more efficient, my runs more "easy." My footfalls are quieter.
A fellow runner, who I have seen frequently in recent weeks but don't know, approached from the opposite direction. His footfalls sounded different than mine. We shared a greeting and continued on. Two runners, two humans, sharing a brief connection.
And I thought about the road noise I can create in my head way too easily. Mind swirl. Shoulds and coulds. Judgements of self and others. The kind of noise that drowns out the birds and the fellow humans. I'll try not to go down that road today, but rather stay on the road created by my physical and spiritual existence.
When I got home from a few hours at work yesterday, I sat down and made a slide show in honor of my sister Mary Jo. I had plenty of pictures from our younger days and the decades since that I could pull together. It was healing and healthy for me to do this on the first anniversary of her death. Her bright smile came through time and time again. She knew much joy.
As I headed out for an early morning run today, I was thinking about road noise. I heard cars and trucks, the various sounds of varied vehicle sizes, on the county road less than a mile from our house. I thought about the people in those vehicles and if they were on their way to or from work. If they were feeling good about the day so far, what their fears and joys might be. I felt human connection. That is where any healing and unity and progress for our planet must start. Shared connections.
I thought about the road noise I was creating with my footfalls. Thankful for the physical therapy this winter and the exercises I have been committed to since, and how they have helped make my running form more efficient, my runs more "easy." My footfalls are quieter.
A fellow runner, who I have seen frequently in recent weeks but don't know, approached from the opposite direction. His footfalls sounded different than mine. We shared a greeting and continued on. Two runners, two humans, sharing a brief connection.
And I thought about the road noise I can create in my head way too easily. Mind swirl. Shoulds and coulds. Judgements of self and others. The kind of noise that drowns out the birds and the fellow humans. I'll try not to go down that road today, but rather stay on the road created by my physical and spiritual existence.
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