I wholeheartedly embrace everything you will read below, but it is not mine. I'm sharing a column from Runner's World, published in March 1994. The author? George Sheehan, a cardiologist who ran, thought, and shared via a long-running column in the iconic running mag.
At the age of reason, I was placed on a train, the shades drawn, my life's course and destiny already determined. At the age of 45, I pulled the emergency cord and began running for my life. It was a decision that meant no less than a new existence, a new course, a new destination. I was born again in my 45th year.
The previous "me" was not me. It was a self-image I'd had thrust upon me. It was the person I had accepted myself to be, but in fact I had merely been playing a role.
"It took me a long time to discover that the key to acting is honesty" and actor once told anthropologist Edmund Carpenter. "Once you know how to fake that, you've got it made"
In time, many of us fool even ourselves. Sooner or later, however, we come to question the trip planned for us, the goals we are given, our itinerary along the pathway to death. Sooner or later, it becomes important that we feel important and believe that what we are doing is important.
When I stepped off that train, I had lost my sense of purpose, my faith in what I was doing, my caring for creation and its creatures. I was not alone. Millions of Americans who had been told Sunday after Sunday to be born again were now going through the shattering experience of rebirth.
...Finding one's reality does not come without plan or effort. Being born again is no easy task. Technique and training and much hard work are needed. And we are always faced with the knowledge that it is an undertaking that will never be completed. Every day must be a fresh start.
Most experts suggest we start a new career, develop new interests. I say begin and the beginning. Begin with the body.
The body mirrors the soul and the mind, and is much more accessible than either. If you can become proficient at listening to your body, you will eventually hear from your whole self--the complex, unique total person you are.
I did it that way. I stepped off that train and began to run. And in that hour a day of running, I perfected my body, I began to find our who I was.
I discovered that my body was a marvelous thing and learned that any ordinary human can move in ways that have excited painters and sculptors since time began. I didn't need the scientists to tell me that man is a microcosm of the universe, that he contains all the elements of the cosmos in his body. In the creative action of running, I became convinced of my own importance, certain that my life had significance.
Fitness may have something to do with this. Physiologists have show that those of us who remain 'perpetual athletes' are two to three decades younger physically than our contemporaries. With this comes an awareness, a physical intelligence and a sensual connection with everything around you. Active participation in sports enlarges your existence.
Any rebirth is a long and difficult task. It must begin with the creative use of the body, in the course of which we will explore pain and exhaustion as closely as pleasure and satisfaction. It will end only when we have stretched the mind and soul as far as the body.
Of course, there is an alternative. You can always get back on the train.
(If you like this article, you might be interested to know that there's a book with many of Sheehan's columns. It's called The Essential Sheehan:A Lifetime of Running Wisdom from the Legendary Dr. George Sheehan. It'll be one of my next Kindle purchases.)
At the age of reason, I was placed on a train, the shades drawn, my life's course and destiny already determined. At the age of 45, I pulled the emergency cord and began running for my life. It was a decision that meant no less than a new existence, a new course, a new destination. I was born again in my 45th year.
The previous "me" was not me. It was a self-image I'd had thrust upon me. It was the person I had accepted myself to be, but in fact I had merely been playing a role.
"It took me a long time to discover that the key to acting is honesty" and actor once told anthropologist Edmund Carpenter. "Once you know how to fake that, you've got it made"
In time, many of us fool even ourselves. Sooner or later, however, we come to question the trip planned for us, the goals we are given, our itinerary along the pathway to death. Sooner or later, it becomes important that we feel important and believe that what we are doing is important.
When I stepped off that train, I had lost my sense of purpose, my faith in what I was doing, my caring for creation and its creatures. I was not alone. Millions of Americans who had been told Sunday after Sunday to be born again were now going through the shattering experience of rebirth.
...Finding one's reality does not come without plan or effort. Being born again is no easy task. Technique and training and much hard work are needed. And we are always faced with the knowledge that it is an undertaking that will never be completed. Every day must be a fresh start.
Most experts suggest we start a new career, develop new interests. I say begin and the beginning. Begin with the body.
The body mirrors the soul and the mind, and is much more accessible than either. If you can become proficient at listening to your body, you will eventually hear from your whole self--the complex, unique total person you are.
Note: This is my favorite paragraph in this essay. I loved it so much that I saved the article, glued it to card stock, and kept it safe for twenty-six years. I have come to know myself well by listening to my physical self. It's been a learning process. It's involved formal education, just-for-fun, informal research, lots of thought, paying attention to how I feel, thinking, praying, and, often revamping and going back to the drawing board. I respect people who have artistic talent or who know how to invest or who sing well or have immaculate, well-organized homes, but those things aren't my strength. My strength is in being true to myself. My strength is self-care. I want to live a long life. I want to do so happily, with a sense of balance and purpose and accomplishment. And I am learning those things as I make my way through life and practice becoming proficient at listening to my body.
I did it that way. I stepped off that train and began to run. And in that hour a day of running, I perfected my body, I began to find our who I was.
I discovered that my body was a marvelous thing and learned that any ordinary human can move in ways that have excited painters and sculptors since time began. I didn't need the scientists to tell me that man is a microcosm of the universe, that he contains all the elements of the cosmos in his body. In the creative action of running, I became convinced of my own importance, certain that my life had significance.
Fitness may have something to do with this. Physiologists have show that those of us who remain 'perpetual athletes' are two to three decades younger physically than our contemporaries. With this comes an awareness, a physical intelligence and a sensual connection with everything around you. Active participation in sports enlarges your existence.
Any rebirth is a long and difficult task. It must begin with the creative use of the body, in the course of which we will explore pain and exhaustion as closely as pleasure and satisfaction. It will end only when we have stretched the mind and soul as far as the body.
Of course, there is an alternative. You can always get back on the train.
(If you like this article, you might be interested to know that there's a book with many of Sheehan's columns. It's called The Essential Sheehan:A Lifetime of Running Wisdom from the Legendary Dr. George Sheehan. It'll be one of my next Kindle purchases.)
