On the Stage of Life…
We journeyed along the South coast of Spain, and ‘turned right’ for a little way up the West Coast, 450 kilometres we travelled… Shimmering heat, the cicadas calling out, playing their familiar music in the shimmer of hot hot weather…
Lunch in Marbella, bright expansive ‘something’s about to happen’ energy, in the setting of holiday relaxation, sparkly sea and Sangria, beautifully painted nails, shiny offices and huge billboards…. A red Ferrari sitting on the forecourt of an exclusive car hire …
I had breakfast for lunch, and then we were on our way again, speeding along empty wide motorways, dusty brown beautiful Spain, clusters of white villages, pausing at the tolls… ‘Hola’; proffering 5 euros or so, and onwards…
And now we are in Conil de la Frontera on an endless beach, the Atlantic sea lapping at our feet instead of the vistas of mountains reaching towards the sun…. Wind, waves, space, scenes of nothing else as far as the eye can see… Nothing to do, nowhere to get to; just running one step after the other to find out where these bare feet are leading…
We drove straight to the beach as we couldn’t find our hostel!
And we stood on the sand, miles and miles of it stretching around us… I have always enjoyed the feeling of being a little dot on the planet, no home, no possessions to hold me… Visiting here for a short while… As Wends my friend said to me the other day, ‘You’ve never wanted to own things Ju…’
But owning things can be wonderful too, delightful joyous fun… The feel of silken clothes, fabrics of soft carpets underfoot, sofas to sink into, delightful underwear against our skin…
It’s not the joy of this planet and the experiences I am rejecting, in truth I am not rejecting anything…
Here the streets are full of fabulous sparkly full shops, floating colour, bright jewels and scarfs… And I am looking forward to an actual shopping spree, to experience the fun and see what my rucksack will carry with me when I fly to the next destination and what I will leave behind…
The clothes we wear and the homes we create are all reflections of our energy…
if we stay curious and interested, intrigued in the theatre playing out around us, the story of our life… The set we are acting out our life play in, the current scene, the props, the space we are inhabiting… The other actors on the stage of life; then we will always be free…
Because we will be aware that the time will come for curtain call; that eventually the big velvet curtain will come down on our performance and the show will be over for us…
If we remain in touch with this, the illusion, the samsara that is life… Then we can enjoy everything it has to offer; hiring the red ferrari on the forecourt and driving through Marbella with the wind in our hair, the sun on our face, joyous roaring fun… Filling our bags with the clothes and the sparkly jewels, enjoying all this life has to offer without holding onto anything at all…
A cobbled street runs outside our hostel leading to a square… Where there are eateries, bars, and an arch, through which… ‘Esta cinco minutos de la playa’, we were assured by our dueño, when eventually we found our way from the beach to our front door…
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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