Run

I lace up my running shoes and pull on my tights and long sleeved shirt.  The sun was low in the sky and the wind was whipping up what felt like just a taste of a winter storm.  I stretch and head out the door.  A brisk walk up the road to warm the muscles and then the quickened pace of a slow trot.

I'm not focused on speed, just good form.  If I'm moving forward and nothing hurts, I'm happy.

The pavement turns into gravel, then into single track. Yellowish brown leaves are strewn about in heaps, still fluffy from falling freshly onto the forest floor.  Not so many that the trail is not discernible, but soon, the trees will be bare and the ground covered.  The leaves will hide the perils of the trail, rocks, roots, potholes.

Someone passes me running the opposite direction,  we greet and then I'm alone.  I focus on the rhythm of my foot fall.  I listen to the sounds of the woods,  although today for some reason, there is not much going on.   No squirrels running about collecting food for the coming winter.  No birds singing.  Already huddled in their nests?  Possibly.

This is the first cold snap that we have had.  The summer has been delightfully cool,  I didn't miss the typical blast of heat that we have had for the past several summers.

As I run,  thoughts creep into my head.  Life's issues, little and big.  I have to fight to stop them.  I'm not running to work out my problems.   I'm running away from them.  To forget, just for a short time what is going on in the world.   To just enjoy the colors, the smells,  to be free from the things that drag a person down.  To glide, hop, skip, jump.  Running in search of freedom.

But, I don't really have to search for it.  It is right here,  I just have to accept it and enjoy it.  And I do.  For close to an hour, I relax my mind.

Breathe in, breathe out.