The season calls for stillness within and without - to pause and allow this calmness to wash over me.  So busy am I for the most part – I cannot keep going at this frenetic rate.  Even a marathon runner knows how to pace himself; ten slow miles for every fast one.

Why the rush anyway?  What am I trying to accomplish? With whom am I trying to compete?  There is no one beside me in my run for life.  Every man runs for himself – my only competitor is myself.

If I would see in the mirror my path of six months or a year or two years ago, I would more easily and rightly judge the steps I choose today.  Am I farther along than I was then?  Am I stronger, calmer and more importantly, wiser?  That’s all that really matters.

If I could arise each morning and be grateful for the chance to run in this race at all!  So often, I murmur about being signed up for this Invitational.  Did I really agree to test my skills here now?  The competition is stiff – but only as I see my reflection in the pooled rainwater at my feet.  So often, she will glare at me, disapproving of what I am trying to do.  She narrows her eyes and her mind with unrealistic expectations of where I ought to be and what I should be doing.  Her image, one based on fear and the opinions of others, judges me in all my efforts.  So, as each race begins, I must jump that puddle before me and look beyond this frightened child that I see.

Where then to look?  Though I run alone, no one said I couldn’t have a coach or a mentor by my side.  As I run, I look to the sidelines to see the faces of loved ones.  They have come out this morning, as if they had nothing better to do, to cheer me on to a victory over self.  With their shouts of encouragement and hands raised in joyful applause I even out my pace and feel the kind of rush that is timeless.

I pass another puddle and peer in.  This time I see a different countenance.  Softer, quieter, she knows that this milling crowd is right.  Now to my left and to my right, at my feet and Overhead, all I see and feel is Love.  I can run this race – for though it is mine alone as I place one foot in front of the other, I need not feel alone.

With this new understanding, I will train differently.  I will look to strengthen each part of my life, to find balance and harmony within as well as without.  And I will join the teeming masses along the sideslines when friends and loved ones are there to run their own race.

There are too many hopeless and discouraged runners among us.  Some barely crawl while others have given up all together.  Still, many more who are still in the race, run without direction or meaning, subtle tears staining their flushed cheeks.

Amidst the cheers, I sense the stillness I have sought.  A gentle breeze cools my fevered brow; the rays of the sun warm my timid heart.  I will run.  I will not give up.  The finish line is till so far away and yet, there is no rush to cross it. Each at his own pace, each running his own race.

Oh, that I may not be bowed down, that my eyes may be open to sense the cheering crowd and to take their outstretched cups of cool refreshment.  For beside me is another that needs my cheers as well.

All alone yet all together.  I can do this.