Yesterday I told Ed that running is my temple.
I had another enlightening experience as I was running yesterday. At about 3 miles, I wasn't sure I could go any further. My legs still felt like water weights and every step took more energy than I swear I had left inside of me. (Why had I been feeling awfully drained of energy and legs full of heavy weights? I have my suspicions, but maybe later I will discuss them.)
Listening to music is always a good distraction for me while I run. It helped me will the energy to continue. At 4 miles, the music in my head stopped, what came from my earphones was only noise. Chills came and went up and down my legs and arms. The sun pierced straight through my skin boiling my blood. Lack of moisture left my mouth waxy and I had stopped sweating. I was extremely dehydrated. Was there anywhere I could stop use the restroom and get a drink? Just houses around and only 1 more mile to go!
I slowed to a walk. I never do that! I never walk because it makes me feel like a quitter, like the race today wasn't even worth waking up for. I worried about this as my heart beat slowed a bit and my step lingered a little under the shady spots. But I just could not urge myself to continue running! I felt utterly sick.
I began to pray. Heavenly Father,
please help me make it home ok...
please help me know what to do to make it home. A clear thought came to mind to turn off Pandora and turn on Mormon Channel. I never listen to the broadcast, so I started to go into Conference Talks as I always do but then had the thought to just listen to the broadcast. I took a step of
faith in that inspiration and also in myself. As soon as I turned the Mormon Channel broadcast on, I began running again.
President Monson's voice led me all the way home. He spoke about how to make the most of your education, how we need to gain the skills of today in order to get the jobs of tomorrow and to not procrastinate. "It has been said that procrastination is a thief of time," he continued, "I would take that further and say that procrastination is a thief of self respect." His words were timely and exceptionally poignant to Ed's and my stage of life.
As soon as I got home I made myself a ice cold glass of water and lustfully drank it. Wow, it tasted sweet. I shared my experience with Ed while sipping on my water. As my body started to rehydrate, sweat began pouring down my head, arms, body and legs like massive droplets of sprinkler water. Amazing. What a special blessing it was to have that whole experience.
I find that when I get to a real pushing point in running when I really have to focus on breathing and putting one foot in front of another, my mind is the clearest. Normally I think about a hundred things at once and constantly have "inputs" coming to me from all over; music, computer, electronic appliances, TV, pictures, internet, phone messages, etc. I rarely if ever feel inspiration from on high unless my mind has been cleared with being surrounded my nature, or running (preferably
in nature). So running is my temple. It is my
flow.
It's been a long time since I've blogged or really written (rather than paraphrased) in my journal so please forgive the writing imperfections. It's just a wonder that I actually put this entry in. I'm going to try to do better from here on out. If anything, it's a good way to record special experiences such as these.
