I did it.

While on my run yesterday I had the idea to start a blog.  It is not the first time this idea has come to be but this time it spoke to me in a more formed and insistent way.  It said “you are always writing anyway, as a devotee to Julia Cameron’s pages; you are always reading and making connections;  you as a person have a unique perspective, are passionate about running, writing and renewal.  How can you focus on those three things in your writing?  How can you challenge yourself to regularly post a creative expression?"

I think the thing that tipped me over the edge toward action was listening to the Trail Society podcast.  The hosts, Corrine Malcolm and Hillary Allen, were discussing Rachel Entriken’s recent win (overall - as in she beat all the men too) at the Cocodona 250 (that’s a 250-mile trail run in Arizona) and how when she found herself out in front, she didn’t think (for long anyway), what am I doing out here?  I must be going way to fast, I better slow down or I’ll pay later.  No, she trusted herself and said, why not me?  Some will win this race, why not me? 

My number one partner in writing, is a role model for this attitude.  She is always challenging me to stretch beyond my comfort zone, asking.  Why not us?  Who better than you to do or write this or that?  Her belief in me is greater than my own.  But, maybe yesterday on a regular run, I began to believe, at least a little in “why not me?”  So, as many of my posts may begin.  “While on my run…. I thought of the name for this blog:  Running, Writing and Renewal.  Running, a focus in my life and a part of my identity for over 50 years, writing a more recent passion, born out of necessity for promotion in academia over the last 25 years and now as much a non-negotiable as running in my life and finally renewal and a more recent realization for me, that neither running for writing can be performed at their best without including renewal. 

A foundational renewal practice for me is the breath.  So, I’ll remind you at the end of every blog to take a few deep ones before you move on to your next thing.