The Plane my Office…
My office on the plane; the plane my office…
As we sat waiting for take off, the pilot announced further delays caused by missing our slot, possibly an hour still on board, he said, until we could leave…
I never mind delays, I see them as an opportunity, it feels like somehow they give me extra time… Even when the truth is they can be taking it away the other end…
But there is nothing to be done…
One of my longest delays was a night and a day in Girona… For the same reason as this one… French air traffic control striking …
It was 9pm at night and we were just about to board when nine flights flashed up on the board as cancelled…
Chaos broke out… I stood for awhile watching and wondering which way to turn…
Needless to say, I discovered what was needed for my next move – and after three hours in a throng, otherwise described as a queue, I was booked onto a flight for the next evening… I had rearranged my appointments for the following day whilst in the mass, so I hailed a taxi and made my way into Girona to find somewhere to sleep…
The day was a delight, a warm sunny time, of unexpected silence and solitude in the sun; tranquility and ease… Drinking coffee of course and enjoying the space, the pause…
Those spaces always act as a reminder of how to live life always in the space of tranquility, of peace… Whatever is happening, to be free from the rush and push and whirl… Even in the midst of the longest ‘things to do list’, to be engaged with the space, the pause, the gap in the breath where infinity and our infinite nature can be glimpsed, recognised, dived into, expanded…
This morning I rose early, before the dawn had streaked its warm orange glow over the land. I made my way to the circular blue road and ran around and around until I had covered four miles and woken myself up in the process…
It was a companionable start to the day; a few other runners and walkers were circling like me in the dusky morning warmth… I loved every step and was reminded again how worth it, it is – getting out of bed early, when the spirit is willing but the flesh feels a little weak…!
To experience our spirit’s truth, its freedom its light, we need to open our body so that the spirit can shine through; when we move our body, it is possible to shift emotional stress and tension caught in the muscles…
If we use movement in sport, or dance or yoga, chi gung, to expand and celebrate our body, and remain conscious of an orientation of moving to release tension, it becomes easier to remember how good it feels when… ‘I don’t want to go to move, to run, to swim to stretch’, occurs….
We store our tension in our muscles, and movement isn’t necessarily a place of release… In fact how we move can deepen tension if we are unaware; and if we approach exercise in the vein of rush and push and whirl we can find it a place of misery and disappointment…
But when we listen to our muscles, to our breath, to our feet – we will be guided as to what feels good…
We will be guided so that we can let go and be free…
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
