Where Our Heart Knows to Lead Us….
I looked up the tide time table and discovered that after starting with an early rise this morning, so that I might enjoy the low tide sands to the full…I can then stay an hour extra in bed each day we are here; if I want to..!
When the tide is low the beach is an expanse of firm wet sand – perfect running ground; high tide finds a changed landscape… Soft silken, golden, white yellow grains; waves and furrows, sand dunes and tufts of grass; pebbles and more grass where lines and lines of cars park all day long…
I prefer training on my running track of hard packed sandy wetness, and so once again I celebrate the world we live in now… A world where I need no knowledge of the moon and it’s pull on the tide, the pace it shifts and changes at… I simply ask ‘google’, and appreciate science meeting nature in glorious symphony…
I ran through the cobbled streets, quiet, white washed buildings, under the ‘Arco de la Ville’; one bar open only… I crossed the road, padded along the slatted bridge that took me right down to the beach…
Runners ran, others walked along the shore, wandering, talking, some carrying their shoes in their hands…
I ran to the right and reached the end after three miles of running; I stopped and enjoyed the feel of the sea on my feet, the glinting sun bouncing off the sand and the orange, brown rocks, and then turned to run into the vast vista of forever-ness….
This huge expanse made up of millions of grains of sand, millions and millions; the universe reflected in each unique and individual one; as we are – reflections of one another; mirrors of brilliance, darkness and light…
And I am reminded of William Blake’s words…
‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour…’
The delightful paradox of being here, in the step – in the moment we are in – and running along an endless beach to nowhere, where there isn’t an end; but on a journey that is leading us to shine our own bright light…
The absolute delight of taking step after step to nowhere, whilst having a joyous experience of the music of our soul playing out to the world, the universe, infinity, all that is….
And recognising in the ‘play of my own life’, that my ‘desire’ for a beach to run along; the vision I envisioned many months ago is unfolding from within… When we release the ‘musts’ and ‘got to’s’ and ‘have to’s’ and instead allow ‘what is’ to emerge, our creativity to blossom; we understand that this ‘stillness’, isn’t about ‘not doing anything’…’ Not looking about’, ‘not putting things in place’, or not working with commitment, practising our skills, developing new ones…
It’s about all of those things… But with the main practise being to clear any inner tension, so that our creativity and our inner voice has space to breathe and flourish and direct us to where our heart knows to lead us…
I arrived ‘home’ after nearly nine miles of barefoot joy; Anadi was working in our little room; and after showering we wandered back along the cobbled streets… A big board heralding desayuno, tostada grande and zumo caught our attention; invited us in…
Oh the joy of eating when hungry and the first sip of coffee of the day… People wandered by in the street beside us, while we sat chatting and enjoying the peace of a sunny Thursday… A family strolled by and I smiled at the son; he waved, called ‘hola’ and when I returned his greeting, he came over, and Alberto and I were immediately friends… Open hearted connection in a street somewhere in Spain; travellers on the path of life, the joy of a chance encounter and the recognition of an open heart and an open soul…
I have been running all of my life – it feels I was born to run. In the running step I experienced freedom and my true expression. I came to see that I needed to ‘get out of the way of myself’ and let my energy flow through the running step; allow it to express itself in the dance and the motion of running. I ran for England and GB for some years. My first international was in 1979, a three mile cross country race; and I continued to run at international level until 1993. Two of my best results were first place in the Dublin City Marathon in 1985 and 7th place woman, 3rd British woman in the 1986 London Marathon in a time of 2.36.31, which gained me selection for the Commonwealth Games.
As a little girl I ran barefoot for many years, and then I put on shoes to race around the world. Fifty years later I am travelling the world as a nomad with my husband Anadi and I have taken off my shoes and I am running barefoot again….
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