8:45 am: i help Ananda and Dewachen transform one of the Needham Elementary schoolrooms for their weekly immersion into HP Yoga™! yup, my girls have started a whole new generation of Durango lil’ yogis on the Path! so proud of them and for Needham to allow us to bring the Light of Yoga to their K-3 program! Dewa is drawing an OM symbol on the dry-erase board which morphed into a very cool human figure!
9:01 am: ilg is running among my other family beings; Black Sage Sisters and Juniper Brothers…
9:13 am: one rural home had this EZ-Curl Barbell on it’s driveway which caught my eye…really? who uses THAT much weight on an EZ-Curl Barbell, outside with no other apparatus around? Betcha he (or she?) is NOT using Standard Staccato Technique with that much weight! …such things fetch my wonder…
9:31 am: my Hopi friends say, “if you lucky enough to be born a runner? well then, you’re lucky enough.”…. i mean, why NOT enjoy a morning run when your h(om)e is surrounded by trails like this one, not more than a kilometer from my front door?!
9:42 am: when ilg runs? the simplest, most fragile of things open my heart, filet it wide open, and my spirit just soars into Father Sky…what IS IT about running feet massaging Mother Earth that shakes our Chakra’s so?! who CARES about health, longevity, fitness? to be able to run along the treasured forested paths is ENOUGH by itself! ilg hasn’t been running through decades because i reckon it might tack on a few more years to my incarnation…ilg runs because running is Pilgrimage, it’s more than the Seat of my Soul, it’s the Karmic SWEAT OF MY SOUL!
9:48 am: a shot of the spiritual birthplace of Wholistic Fitness™…looking up Junction Creek Valley from 25th Street in Durango… i grew up 4 miles up valley of this pic in the most beautiful, amazing, auspicious upbringing any nature boy could ever have dreamed, thank you Dear Passed Dad, thank you M(om)…growing up here was indeed the Blessing of an Incarnation…now i am 50 years-old with my own little daughter and the land here remains just as potent, just as pranic…enjoy, my little One! and the rest of you? Schedule your Private Intensive! 😉
9:57am: for whom the Bell tolls…when you visit, visit this amazing historic building which now houses the Animas City Museum…there is an actual one-room schoolhouse inside the building and a one-room homesteader’s cabin on the property called, interestingly enough, the Joy Cabin!
tell me about YOUR morning runs!
Blessed be thy Sweat…
and remember, the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon, the first of the three yearly WF Sacred Sweat Pilgrimages is only 152 days away…i’ll train you for it…just c(om)mit…ilg plans on returning to solo her 75-kilometer course for the first time since 2009 when i nearly cracked the top-20…
keep training wholistically,
coach ilg
These teachings are the "Rasas" or "sap" of Wholistic Fitness. You’ll find insights to ponder, student chi to keep your own chi topped off, and plenty of proven training techniques to test on your own body, mind, and spirit! Also, you’ll find my very popular Race Reports, and news of our Sangha’s (community’s) latest transpersonal fitness adventures!
EC,
Beautiful thoughts and images. I have been too long away from my morning run. I allowed my thinking brain to convince me that I should be doing something different with my mornings. Moving in a different, and it turns out, far less fulfilling way. Before the internet and limitless access to so much (mis)information, I simply did what felt right to me and that meant getting out, often before the sun sun rose, to place my feet rhythmically along the crushed granite paths lined with fragrant wild lavender, rosemary and sage. The morning dew still clinging to their leaves before the summer sun made it but a memory. I would stop at the apex of the trail to look out across the still-sleeping valley below. Freeways appearing almost as rivers from this distance. It has taken me a long time to get back in touch with that which nourishes me and I mean to never let go of that practice… rhythm, breath, scent and sound.
Most Precious HSBG!
WHOLY WARRIOR SMOKESIGNALS!
if feeble ilg had even the most REMOTE inspiration to that paragraph!??!
ilg has lived a life well lived…thank you…
ec
EC,
You were in-deed inspirational both to the experience and the writing. All-ways inspiring.
head bowed,
hsbg
Coach,
just me, and the stars shining from Father Sky
my Fall morning runs start at 5 or 530 am. I start from my house to Santa Rita Park and here I either go North or South. If I go North, I turn onto the bridge behind the Fairgrounds and run the dirt trail, then up Chapman Hill and to FLC track and work on plyometrics, etc, then run back down the hill.
If I go South, I turn around behind WalMart and back up to the Rec Center, and maybe take a class.
My favorite so far…in late mornings, i run up the Animas Trail and take a left to Ponderosa Trail to Sailing Hawks and back. And sometimes, if I house- sit near Edgemont Ranch, I run into town to my house in early morning hours… and when I go back to Edgemont Ranch, I can either take the dirt trails via Horse Gulch.
My latest goal is to run to Junction Creek Trail Head and then to the bridge, I still have not run Carbon Junction Trail… hmmmm…. I should get on that soon.
There is something about running, that frees my mind from clutter, instead, i focus on my right and left feet and where they will touch mother earth in the next second. my heart beats faster and stronger. there are no tears. no fears. it is a bit chilly at that time of the morning. but i am the only one out here, i see no one else running. no one on FLC track. sometimes i think i see snow in the dark but when the sun comes out… there is no snow and i remember the crunch crunch sounds underneath the snowshoes.
somewhere i read of a guy who is a great marathon runner, who was raised in an orphanage, that every time he got hungry and there was no food, he ran
dawa
Most Precious Dawa,
your closing sentence; “somewhere i read of a guy who is a great marathon runner, who was raised in an orphanage, that every time he got hungry and there was no food, he ran”…
got me.
big time.
nothing like running, whereupon each footstep literally f*&cks Mother Earth…it’s actually the etymological root of the now ‘nasty’ word…that type of ‘grounding’ is absolutely vital to the flight of our Soul while in this incarnation…
so…
keep Running
Noble Warrioress…
keep Running…
and feel Mother Earth, Father Sky
and your own, unique, precious Dance
between them!
thank you for your devotion and ongoing contribution to the Path…
xoxo,
ec