Doing What We Love; Loving What We Do…

We have taken to visiting our blue rooftop restaurant every day…

We clamber up the narrow steep steps from the street and emerge into our blue oasis, with pots of plants sitting on top of the thick walls. It is tiny up there, with four tables crammed in, bright parasols jostle with one another to protect us from the bright glinting yellow light of the afternoon sun…

I am working my way through their list of ‘juices’ made with milk and ground almonds, dates and raisins… It’s a bit like having my ‘pudding’ first…

And then we are brought a tapenade, black olive shiny salty deliciousness, to spread on crisp little toasts…

I like this new ‘routine’ – I order mozzarella and tomato salad and Anadi takes a soup and then we finish with the Moroccan tea ritual… Anadi has perfected the art of filling our second glass in the style our waiter delivered our first; pouring from high up, golden liquid landing in the little glass in bubbling delight…

Fun… Our lunchtime break.

When we went to pay, the owner asked us where we live and how long we are in Essaouira for… We have been to his cafe four days running now ?

When he heard we were nomads, he liked it ‘The best life – no restrictions – free from the environment, then you don’t get stuck in it’… He said…  ‘Good for “here”,’ he continued, pointing to his head…

He said he was happy we kept coming back to his restaurant, he thanked us, asked us to do a trip advisor report and then as we left, we all said… ‘See you tomorrow…’

Fatima thinks we work too hard, she wants us to go out for longer in the day, to leave her oasis of the riad, with tall green plants and quiet – the rooftop cats which we love… She wants us to go and swim…!

But we don’t want to swim ? We love what we are doing and we are loving our time here… Anadi loves his programming and I love my new rhythm of running and writing as I have dreamed of doing for much of my life…!

I ran alone today on the beach; the wind has left and so the running – joyous before – has taken on another quality… It feels limitless, the beach curves around the edge of this part of Morocco for another 70k… And my feet are so willing; they feel like they could run the whole way round…

I was reminded today of a hero of many of us, Caballo Blanco (aka Micah True) of the book ‘Born to Run’ fame… He is no longer alive in his body on earth; but his energy, his legacy lives on, and his mantra… ‘Easy light smooth fast…’

Barefoot running, more than any running I have done, lends itself to this mantra… My feet sing it to me; rather than me to them…

There is something about running in bare feet which is always like playtime…

Later…

I received a text from my sister Rosy, saying that she was very glad we had changed our plans…

We had booked to be in Freetown, in Sierra Leone, now rather than here… But in June I started to feel unsure about going; it was just a feeling rumbling away, But then both Anadi’s colleague Mudassir and my sister expressed concern over us going…

‘Let’s cancel…’ I said to Anadi, ‘I have been having doubts, so this confirms it, we’ll change our plans…’ and so we did.

Two days ago Anadi said to me… ‘I believe we escaped something bad happening, by not going to Freetown’. ‘I agree…’ I replied ‘Even possible death…’

In the text from my sister, she told me that there has been a tragedy in Freetown, over 300 people have been killed in a mudslide that occurred very near to where we would have staying…

As Maricarmen – my Spanish teacher – said, when I told her this story… ‘It wasn’t your time… You aren’t good enough at Spanish yet…’!

 

 

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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Email : juliachitaylor@gmail.com

 

 

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