[*note* this was describing yesterday's run] It was a beautiful, sunny day.
Temperatures
were in the upper 80's, a few wisps of clouds hovered high in their
ever-temporal fashion, and an oh-so-slight breeze danced through the
city streets.
The
pace was pretty relaxed; a friend had sent a message earlier asking
about the possibility of a run after work, and such an idea sounded
marvelous, even after a tiring day. Truth be told, the lack of speed
was an unexpected blessing, allowing the true nature of the day to soak
in and replace the wearisome tenor that various circumstances and
revelations of the day had caused it to assume.
Sometimes
we need such a slow down to get us back into a disposition that allows
us to take in the marvels of the world around us, to seek refuge from
the
brooding outlook that is all too often forced upon us. Often times it
proves difficult to reign in the speed of our runs, much less our lives
and our world, even when we nominally make the effort; our slow runs
paradoxically turn out to be yet another chore through which we rush in
an effort to get to the next item on the list. Our overly-filled,
scheduled, planned, and regulated days have all too often caused us to
miss the true benefits and beauty of the slow down.
A
few easy miles on a warm, clear day can work wonders that are beyond
the understanding of an air-conditioned mind working at 100 gigabytes
per second.
Lessons of the slow down are easy to pick up, if we'll only take the time to try.
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