I am rather enjoying a home from home experience, sitting in a café with the sea across the road, but it is warm and cloudy, rather than cold and sunny, as I hear Eastbourne is today, and I am drinking café con leche rather than a cappuccino.
I am here in Majorca with my friend Wendy; we met at nursery school when we were four years old. She first came away with me on one of my running trips five years ago, leaving her husband for the first time to look after their four children on his own, and Wends and I were once again as we were as teenagers.
On that occasion we were ‘told off’ for too much giggling on the first morning, the lady was very nice to us in her telling off, she said ‘It is lovely to hear laughter, but it is 6 o’ clock’.
I am undecided as to whether I will run the race tomorrow. I have been hopeful and my rather short run up to the race has been promising, but yesterday my knee started to hurt again and although I ran for half an hour this morning and all seemed well, I am keen that this return to running is one of building up not repeated breaking down.
Tomorrow pertains to be a sunny day and so a morning sitting watching the races as they go by, drinking coffee and being with Wends is increasingly feeling the most appealing option.
I never give up the vision of running fast and free again. It must be the reason I have returned again and again from injury over a running career spanning over 40 years. I am now at ease with the processes of re-balancing and re-aligning when things are amiss.
On Thursday morning I attended an introduction to yoga session, for the first year students given by my yoga teacher John Stirk, who is also an osteopath. My friend Rob, their tutor, had asked me if I could recommend anyone for the session ‘John, highly’ I had responded.
It was a brilliant experience, to listen to the story of yoga, but more importantly to hear John speak about yoga from an Osteopath’s perspective. It made such sense that the movements he is teaching me are small and gentle and designed to open my spine and open the space within me to allow the letting go of whatever it is that is restricting my movement, causing the injuries and imbalances. The process is also allowing a real inner patience to develop rather than ‘making myself be patient’; I am really in touch with what is best for me, the messages coming from the inside out…
Sunday
My decision was made over my third café con leche, at about 4pm yesterday; it seemed natural to enjoy a weekend of rest and relaxation and to watch the race go by this time.
Wendy and I walked with other runners to the start, about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. The day was bright and still quite cool at 8.30am and as we approached the start area, the atmosphere was building , the energy of a race start never failing to access something within me that wants to be there, running , strong and fast and free.
As I emerged from the loo Wends was chatting to a fellow ‘not running’ runner. David was there with his friend Michael, who was returning to the sport after a break. The strangest thing – or maybe not – was that a few weeks ago, David, who is an executive coach had found me through a ‘Google search’ connected to our shared professions and ‘book marked’ me. Some time after that, he noticed that I was on the ‘Running Crazy’ list of runners and he thought I must be the same person. He resolved to have a chat with me when we met out here.
However, as Wendy and I are keen to be together and catch up with each other, we had decided to do our own thing. This is the joy of Malcolm of Running Crazy’s organization. There is the opportunity for a social weekend should you desire, or the chance to just ‘do your own thing’ if that is what you prefer. As Wendy and I had lots of ‘girl- talk’ to do, without the chance meeting outside the loo on the road to the start of the race we may not have got to talk.
It reminded me that we need ‘do nothing’ external really, simply go within and see where the inner understanding directs us outwards and then all unfolds as it should. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t ‘take action’, but that if the action comes from a place of stillness within and a deeper level of consciousness then the actions are more powerful. There exists then a balance between the inner and outer and both match and reflect each other.
When our inner truth matches our outer expression then life tends to flow more easily.
If we trust that we are wherever we are and that whatever is going on, is exactly where we are meant to be and the experiences we are having are for our growth, then being reflective and listening to our inner voice becomes a more familiar and usual practice that informs how we live. It also seems to mean that the synchronicity occurs regularly – or perhaps we simply notice it more.
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