Bigger Picture Moments: Running to Live

 Photo credit: jeffsmallwood

It's been over a month since I last woke up before the sun came up for a morning run. Those moments are so precious to me, because running has become so much more than just exercise for me.

This week, I started building up my strength again, taking it easy with two short walks pushing a double stroller with two toddlers who were more than happy to join me.  My Achilles tendinitis is slowly healing and the need to run has only grown stronger.

I read this quote yesterday, "To run is to feel alive," and I felt I could have written that sentence myself.  When I first started to run, it was just to prove to myself I could do it.

I started to set goals and each time I reached them I felt my confidence rising.  Suddenly, without warning, I realized that running was more about life than about exercise.

"I ran to be free; I ran to avoid pain; I ran to feel pain; I ran out of love and hate and anger and joy.  Somewhere along the path, running became the canvas upon which I documented my life."

Too often in my life, I've run away from things that are hard, protecting myself the only way I knew how, by hiding the way I was really feeling and ignoring the hurt that was growing inside me.  But when I really started to run, I imagined myself running forward, to a life filled with freedom and hope and healing.

Last year was a year of blessings through rain drops, a time when I learned more about who I am than ever before in my life.


"There's an important story you should know about.  It's the story of millions of women finding their legs.  Along the way, they found their voices, their hearts, their dreams."

With each run, I began to see that my life doesn't have to be about comparisons that steal my joy and buried hurts that rob me of freedom and anxiety that wreaks havoc on my soul.

Life, real abundant life is about running the race set before me.  Its about the moments when we must make a choice between running away from and running towards the only true freedom.

To run really is to feel alive, abundantly, gratefully, hopefully alive. 

*All quotes from Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running.

Linking up with Lenae for this week's Bigger Picture Moment.