Become the Run

julia Chi Taylor

I like running intervals in the park

And so I keep running them

For now

While I have the legs and heart that are willing to run, still…

I circled Battersea Park today under burnished golden red green leaves, trees tall and strong – sky grey… I ran

For now I live here, near the park which I raced around before

Where I ran and ran – in races and on the track

I ran to chase something I already had

I ran ‘to’ become

But I already was, I just didn’t know that then

I run still – and now there is a shift – in every step I run ‘and’ become 

Now

Nothing has changed except that I now know that I am going nowhere

There is nothing and no where to run to

Except to transcend the self

To know the burnished golden leaf, the river that flows, the bird that swoops…

To transform through the endeavour of stretching the physical limitations, without attachment to what this brings in terms of fruits of the labour.

Living life as a process rather than with an eye on the outcome is fun.

Running intervals in the park without a perception of ‘me’ – with no perception of the person at all is the ultimate fun.

One step only

A meditation on the move

It is why I keep returning to the park to run around it again and again

Running – freedom – as the run takes over and silence is all there is, within

I run to become

The run

Not knowing where it is taking me

Life a continuous movement, where every moment we are different 

And yet the same unchanging nature is at the centre and circumference of our being 

The awareness of the futility of being anxious about the results of practising to run fast in bursts around a park washed me clean  as the years went by – I was always aware of being pulled by this chimera

And what remains once it left…

Is the fun of running intervals around a park to see how fast I can run!