The Art of Runswithwind>>>----------------------------->

The Winds of Change

Running was always my way of talking with Dad, it has served me well my whole life.

On a lonely beach, on a quiet forest trail, even in the madness of a city, the connection could always be found!
There was always a simple beauty in it, running is simply putting one foot in front of the other, nothing more, nothing less.
Yet this simple act of freewill can defeat even the strongest of men.
It can also bring the meekest to great pride in themselves!

For me running was about connecting, connecting to the Great Spirit.
I ran when I needed to and I ran when I wanted to. The result would be the same, connected!
Almost like logging on to the vast internet, connecting to the Creator is like connecting to everyone and everything.
It is pure, just like running, it is simple!

Most people seem to live their lives in isolation, they never realize they are a part of the ONE,
doesn't matter the name you attach to the ONE, it is the same!
If you take a drop of water from the ocean, do you think possibly the ocean cares?
The drop of water can fit into the palm of your hand and is at your mercy,
but if you take that same drop of water and place it back into the ocean, it now has the power of the whole sea behind it!

Such are people! They could have the power of Creation, if they would but "connect" to it!
Running connects me to Creation! It has always been this way!
The simple act of running shows will, the will to go forward, it is not so satisfying to run backwards, as it is to run forward.
Some run in other ways, not with their feet, they run from themselves...thinking they can actually escape?
Yet they continue to tag along, wondering why they can't escape themselves!

We always have a choice of how and where we will run or even if we will run at all.
Some will just sit and accept what is dealt them, others will follow the example of the buffalo of the Great Plains.
The Great American Bison will not wait and huddle in the midst of the storm,
NO, they of their own free will walk into the storm knowing that the end will come sooner if they walk head on into the cold wind!

Running into the wind is something that most runners dread, it can wear on you faster than the highest mountain,
the mountain has a top, yet the wind can blow for days!
As a young man running into a brisk north wind, feeling it's bite in every step,
a calm came over me and I then understood something profound about life.

The wind had no power over me other than the power I allowed it to have, we are made of the same thing, atoms!
How then could the wind resist me? It could not, we are ONE!
From that moment on, I knew it was a trick, the wind...I would absorb it's energy and let it pull me forward as I released my atoms into the wind behind me!
From that day on, I was runswithwind!

The wind could never stop me, I would always run with it, even when by all outward appearances it was blowing hard against me!
From that day to this one, the winds of change have continued to blow, they will always blow, they sometimes blow soft and gently at other times they rage with fury that stings!
But the result is the same, the wind is a part of me and I a part of it...it can be no other way!

It is the will of man that determines the direction of life, the wind can sometimes assist in the journey or it can sometimes stand firm in denial of the direction you seek.......
sometimes the wind will bend you, if you didn't allow it, it would break you!
On the last day of a year, people think of the winds of change, they plot their new course and hope they have the strength to pursue it.
Some choose to face the storm and run into it and others simply accept where they stay right now!

In life there are many challenges and many gifts, they all originate from the same wind, the wind of change, it is the one thing you can always count on!
Will you have the wisdom to become a part of it or will you stand in defiance?
This is the question for the New Year?
Always it is so, to become the wind or to fight the wind?
Tomorrow will be a new year, at least in the terms of men, but in the terms of life it is simply a new breeze that can be welcomed or dreaded......the choice is yours!
As for me, I will put my head down and put one foot in front of the other, on down the beach of life,
knowing that the wind is my friend and will always pull me forward to the next trail..............
all the while talking with Dad....asking, "is this the right way?"

Waiting for the reply and hoping to find the strength to go in that direction!