Douglas Coupland . . . And Running

"I thought of this: I thought of how every day each of us experiences a few little moments that have just a bit more resonance than other moments--we hear a word that sticks in our mind--or maybe we have a small experience that pulls us out of ourselves, if only briefly--we share a hotel elevator with a bride in her veils, say, or a stranger gives us a piece of bread to feed to the mallard ducks in the lagoon; a small child starts a conversation with us in a Dairy Queen--or we have an episode like the one I had with the M&M cars back at the Husky station.

"And so if we collect these small moments in a notebook and save them over a period of months we would see certain trends emerge from our collection--certain voices would emerge that have been trying to speak through us. We would realize that we have been living another life altogether, one we didn't even know was going on inside us. And maybe this other life is more important than the one we think of as being real--this clunky day-to-day world of furniture and noise and metal. So just maybe it is these small silent moments which are the true story-making events of our lives."

-"Life After God" by Douglas Coupland. Pgs 254-55.

It's 4:51am and I just read the above passage. (Was up all night working on a school project).
It made me think about my running.
This past week I've been running 2 days on, one day off. Not running like I did years ago, with goals of beating certain times and keeping certain paces.
No, I've just been running to have fun. Running barefoot in my Vibram five fingers.

Anyway, reading the above passage, I realized that those times every day when I've been running have been the happiest moments of my days.
Following Caballo Blanco's advice I constantly strive to keep my running easy. And I do.
And while running easy I find myself thinking of funny scenes from movies I haven't seen in decades.
I find myself thinking about how wonderful Roza is.
I find myself spacing out for blocks at a time.

That's the pattern I come up with when I follow Douglas Coupland's advice and seek a pattern in those special moments.

Why do I feel this way while running?

-Maybe it's because it doesn't involve seeking anyones approval. Forget seeking, I'm alone out there. There's not even anyone's approval to stumble across.

-Maybe it's because I'm engaging in an action that I know has no negative cost to myself or anyone else.

-Maybe it's because my slow speed and clumsy gait are funny to watch and even funnier to execute.

I don't know.
:)