Turtles don’t jog and they live to be over a hundred. — Mayor Sandy Keith, in response to my suggesting he might want to take up jogging.
At one time, I used to jog in the early mornings, of course doing further damage to my poor knees. My friend Sandy was famous for sometimes saying what he thought, getting himself and our city board in trouble. But he did have a practicality about him that I appreciated. For instance, he would say city government was all about catching the crooks, putting out the fires, picking up the trash, and paving the streets, and that should be the city board’s focus. This morning my knees are telling me that maybe I should have listened to Sandy about jogging.
I remembered Sandy’s advice the other day when I read Jon Kabot-Zinn say that if we learn to live our life as it really mattered, we open our lives rather than running to death. He says that when we do, our brain changes, our immune system changes, and our body changes — that we start to really take care of what’s important.
Now I’m all into changing my body these days. I can’t seem to lower my body mass no matter what diet I am on, so I’m doing yoga in hopes that I get taller. But seriously, the phrase “running to death” caught my attention. I found myself asking is that what I am doing? I hope not, but it’s a good question. One, I need to ask myself more often, and if I discover I am, to slow down — to quit being a hare, more like the turtle. I don’t mean to slow the pace of my morning walk, I mean to slow down, enjoy, and be grateful for my relationships with my family, friends, community, and the world.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
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