I try to run at least 3 times a week… Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I try to do a long run on Saturday.

Today I ran 12.5K in the cold, pouring rain. It felt great. To me it isn’t just physical exercise, but spiritual as well.

I don’t take my cell phone. I run alone. I am completely disconnected from everyone else. I am totally in touch with my body. I feel the earth beneath my feet and the I feel the elements. I breathe the air. I hear everything going on around me. I am very aware. It clears my mind. All kinds of thoughts go through my head. I meditate. I pray.

It defies what religion had taught me… that prayer should be a very specialized activity with specialized movements, words, places, and rituals.

So in a sense I am running away from ritualized religious spiritual exercises towards freer ones.

And it feels great!

If you’ve read the post on “The Power of Fear” you can see that we are all in the process of leaving something, as frightening as it might be, to find something that is truer so that we can be more true to ourselves.