Playin’ The Edge

Great article on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on things he wished he’d known at 30.  Here are my faves:

16. Don’t be so quick to judge. It’s human nature to instantly judge others. It goes back to our ancient life-or-death need to decide whether to fight or flee. But in their haste to size others up, people are often wrong—especially a thirty-year-old sports star with hordes of folks coming at him every day. We miss out on knowing some exceptional people by doing that, as I’m sure I did. I think the biggest irony of this advice is that it’s coming from someone who’s black, stratospherically tall, and an athlete: the trifecta of being pre-judged. And I have a lifetime of hurtful comments to prove it. Yet, that didn’t stop me from doing the same thing to others. You have to weigh the glee of satisfaction you get from arrogantly rejecting people with the inevitable sadness of regret you’ll eventually feel for having been such a dick. A friend of mine told me he routinely attends all of his high school reunions so he can apologize to every person he mistreated back then. He’s now on his fortieth reunion and still apologizing.

19. Do more yoga. Yes, K, I know you do yoga already. That’s why you’ve been able to play so long without major injuries. But doing more isn’t just for the physical benefits, it’s for the mental benefits that will come in handy in the years ahead, when your house burns down, your jazz collection perishes, and you lose to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in your final season.

20. Everything doesn’t have to be fixed. Relax, K-Man. Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

I’m on Pemo Chodron’s mailing list and she sent this one out today.  I like it because I’ve noticed it’s true for myself it’s so true – how I treat myself conditions how I view others and the world:

Learning how to be kind to ourselves is important. When we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn’t just ourselves that we’re discovering. We’re discovering the universe. When we discover the buddha that we are, we realize that everything and everyone is Buddha. We discover that everything is awake, and everyone is awake. Everything and everyone is precious and whole and good. When we regard thoughts and emotions with humor and openness, that’s how we perceive the universe.

I saw this quote and thought it was so perfect for running, yoga or anywhere that we safely push our boundaries to discover more about ourselves and what we’re capable of.

I’m glad to be here right now, poking at my threshold. I want to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shrink back just because something isn’t easy. I want to push back, and make more room in the area between I can’t and I can. Maybe that spot is called I will.

Kristin Armstrong, Mile Markers blog, Runner’s World.com

My beloved child,

break your heart no longer.

Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart.

You stop feeding on the love which is the wellspring of your vitality.

The time has come, your time

To live to celebrate and to see the goodness that you are…

Let no one, no thing, no idea or ideal obstruct you

If one comes, even in the name of “Truth”, forgive it for its

unknowing

Do not fight

Let go

And breathe – into the goodness that you are.

Bapuji

Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materializes. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.

Mary Manin Morrissey

I find lately that my life is crazy enough that I need to do 3 things regularly to keep my cool and my sanity.   I need to exercise with some regularity.  I need to sit and follow my breath for 10 minutes every a.m. while the house is quiet, and these days, dark.  And i need to listen to good stuff while i drive to work.

Good stuff recently has been Pema Chodron CDs that were recorded during a weekend workshop that she gave called Going to the Places That Scare You.   She went through a ton of material but thankfully repeated the purpose often enough that I can recite it here – it’s about abiding with the feelings without believing your own thoughts and beliefs about them.

I love the word “abiding”.  It means lasting for a long time.  Becoming a permanent fixture.  Just hanging out rather than freaking out and pushing back against every yucky thing that happens.

Now that’s good stuff.  And exactly what i need when life is on the verge of being overwhelming at any moment. Here was something she said at the end of one CD that really struck me:

It’s not about getting it right, it’s about becoming more connected with your life and other people

Don’t believe the bullshit that you’re a failure or helpless or be embarassed about yourself.

Always realize that anything you’re feeling is a doorway to enlightenment.

When I read this bit of Born to Run I thought about how many millions of ways it’s applicable to my life – patterns I’d love to put a stop too, habits I’d love to kiss good-bye.  The more we resist them, the more they persist, at some point you gotta let them be, accept them, and even love ‘em to death.

Strictly by accident, Scott stumbled upno the most advanced weapon in the ultrarunner’s arsenal: instead of cringing from fatigue, you embrace it.  You refuse to let it go.  You get to know it so well, you’re not afraid of it anymore.  Lisa Smith-Batchen, the amazingly sunny and pixie-tailed ultrarunner from Idaho who trained through blizzards to win a six-day race in the Sahara, talk about exhaustion as if it’s a playful pet.  “I love the Beast,” she say, “I actually look forward to the Beash showing up, because every time he does, I handle him better.  I get him more under control.”  Once the Beast arrives, Lisa knows what she has to deal with and can get down to work.  And isn’t that the reason she’s running through the desert in the first place — to put her training to work?  To have a friendly little tussle with the Beast and show it who’s boss?  You can’t meet the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philospher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.

Christopher McDougall

Born To Run

I thought that if i grew up, did my best, and made everyone proud of me, it would be enough.  I thought if i got a good job, got a better job, made money, and then made even more money, it would be enough.  I thought if i could lose ten pounds, get a better haircut, get the right jeans, then lose the same ten pounds, it would be enough.  I thought if i could understand, explain, and expresss my feelings well enough, it would be enough.  I thought if I wished, hoped, dared, or dreamed enough, then it would finally be enough.

Then I thought: enough.

I practice being enough.  When i do that, everything is already enough and this is the day I’ve been saving for.

Karen Maezen Miller

Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for An Ordinary Life

I heard a recording from a talk that Danna gave at Kripalu and it was perfect.  She’s thoughtful and grounded and her poetry is amazing.  I really need to get her books, but until then I’ll  share a single poem.

Allow

There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt,
containing a tornado.  Dam a
stream and it will create a new
channel.  Resist, and the tide
will sweep you off your feet.
Allow, and grace will carry
you to higher ground.  The only
safety lies in letting it all in –
the wild and the weak; fear,
fantasies, failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of
the heart, or sadness veils your
vision with despair, practice
becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your
known way of being, the whole
world is revealed to your new eyes.

Danna Faulds