Month: July 2009

The orbit of my little world took something of a seismic shift in orientation over the past week.  Instead of finding myself perched rapturously on the sidelines of the 3100 mile race I was relocated to quite a different universe altogether.  I had driven just 920km north of this hard little Queens sidewalk to a place in which there were hardly any sidewalks at all.  Family commitments had drawn me away and I confess, that I surrendered to them with little opposition. [image source: Jim Leistman, flikr]

I will not bore you with the delights and the despair of family encounters but I would say this,  I did not have to travel far before the miracle that is the Self-Transcendence race drifted free of my mind almost entirely.  When one is surrounded by nature that is full and lush it is easy to be distracted from that, which so recently had absorbed almost every fibre of my being.  Instead, Goderich Ontario is a tiny Canadian town with all the usual pastoral enchantments that can soothe ones being with their sweetness, simplicity, and charm.  There are no great struggles here, at least none worth noting.  When you are tired you go to bed.  Nobody is in a rush to do anything at all.  In fact life here is just like it is in most places in this wonderful world of ours.

What is missing here of course is the absolute expression of divine transcendence taking place repeatedly on a tiny fragment of a Queens neighborhood.  You could of course stand face to face with the runners as they shuffle past you and still not see it, but once you have glimpsed even an iota of the miracle of the 3100 you can never ever really forget it.

I will try at one point to describe it to my 91 year old Mother.  For her now a great distance is to travel down the long hall of her apartment.  My words at first do not seem to find any purchase, as I try and describe for her what the runners are doing.  I repeat again how many years it has happened.  How many hours they run, how many days they will be here, and how far they have already travelled.  My description seems to be just drifting away out of her reach when suddenly her eyes light up.  “My that is such a long way,”and Mom smiles in recognition.

Continue reading “July 11 Such a Long Way”

Today there is a holiday in America.  It is not quite the proper July 4th celebration, but because the 4th is on a Saturday, the day off has been scheduled for today.  America will have its parades, concerts, and fireworks tomorrow for sure, so today the country gets to sleep in and take it easy.

For the runners a holiday means only that the streets are quieter and there is little, or no roar, rising up from the Grand Central nearby.  More importantly the day is warm, sunny, and dry.  The great thunderstorms that rolled in yesterday and lit up the sky and flooded the course are just an unpleasant memory.  Though one that’s devastation still lingers  in musty shoes piled up trying to dry, and numbers on the board, that were diminished due to hours of slogging through sloppy streets.

On this the eve of America’s independence it somehow seems fitting to find this country is hosting the longest distance race in the world.  It is after all a place in which big, grand, and powerful have been synonymous for much of what this Country has created.  But those words fall inadequately short in describing the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race.  Long yes, but its greatness is beneath and beyond what we the public can see standing on a sidewalk.  There is an inner wonder here that is off the charts when it comes to luminosity and intensity.

Sri Chinmoy whose distance running life took place here once said of this country.

“America is a young nation. It does not want to walk; it wants to run as fast as possible in order to breast the tape first.

I appreciate America for its dynamism. If you are dynamic, you run towards your goal. If you do not know where the goal is, then you may run from this side to that side. But it is better than to remain static. Americans are running. They may not be sure of the goal, but they are constantly on the move. They go to one side and run into a wall and get hurt. Then they go to another side and the goal is not there, so they get another blow. But at least they go.

The best quality in th e spiritual life is not to hesitate once you know your goal. But even if you do not know your goal, it is good to run. God’s Compassion will dawn just because you are running, because you are on the move. Once you feel that your goal is not where you are, that your goal is somewhere ahead of you, then you have to run. And if you run, eventually you are bound to reach your goal.”

Continue reading “July 3 There is a Perfect Atmosphere Here”

When most of us are asked, what our idea of heaven and hell are, our impressions of them can change as quickly as grass shifting in a breeze.  Most, but perhaps not all, would like to see heaven as a place with all beauty and light and perhaps precious little to do.  Hell therefore would then be obligated to be on the other dark extreme of the spectrum.

The truth is that most of us, if we really examined our notions of Heaven and Hell, might just be a little disappointed once we arrived at the proverbial Pearly Gate and found all our wishes granted.  Heaven, where we hoped for peace and tranquility might just be a little boring and the other alternative might start to appear to have some more merit.  Excluding of course brimstone, fire, and dancing demons.

When most of us look at those who run here, we can appreciate and admire their efforts but few would want to be inside those pounding shoes.  If we were obligated to spend two months out here and be forced to do it, then logically it could easily be described as a kind of hell, and why not.  The runners of course have a different perspective.  Not every day are they dinning on ambrosia nor are they forced to eat stinging nettles.  The highs of course far surpass the lows, if not then all would have exited with speed to comforting homes in quiet countries long ago.  And yet they come back as well, again and again.

The best moment may not even be crossing the finish line after weeks and months of struggle.  It may not be to return home and recover and dream of precious moments when they ran through hot days and still nights here.  Instead heaven may exist in those singular moments of the present, when they know with utmost certainty that they are doing the right thing by being here and pushing themselves to their limits and beyond.  That they are listening to the call of their inner pilot who is asking them to go beyond and still further beyond.  This is the elixir that all of us wish to drink.

We do not have to come here and do what they do but we all need to listen within  and act upon the call of our inner voices.  To not be swayed by the siren cries of inertia and doubt.  There is some task in front of us all that we need to do, and we can do it.  And even if we fail, our sincere effort will be its own reward, and mark a moment when our own personal heaven was within our heart’s reach.  Hell is that we just didn’t even try.

Continue reading “July 2 A Mountain That Has To Be Climbed”