When you go for long runs with out any kind of outside distraction like music your mind starts to wander after a while to some pretty random places. Last week this little nugget came to mind and I worked through it for the better part of a few hours.
Its weird to think that “I” the individual is the most important thing on the planet. How I feel, my ethics and moral compass, my passions and what I believe in are ultimately the most important things on the planet. On the other hand when you’re 1 in 7.594 billion who really gives a damn what I think or feel or talk about utilizing this 21st century gift called the internet.
I think I’ve been working through a bit of an existential crisis lately on my attempts to change the world through my social media platforms and my desire to write had been waning a bit. These three minute reads often take a couple of 30-40 minute writing sessions to finally flesh something out that I hope has a balance of insightful wit scattered in for good measure.
After a couple more miles and closing in on some serious heat related injuries I was reminded of the serenity prayer, you know the one that goes ” God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change…” Thats a great one but the version that came to mind for me was.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the people that I can not change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know its me.”
My race went about as poorly as it could have last week in consideration to my goal distance but I still got a few things out of it. The wisdom to know that when your body starts sending you serious signals that your cooking from the inside, you listen. The wisdom to finally learn that August trail races in Florida are not the smartest for me. But more importantly I think I finally learned that instead of worrying about the things/people I can not change I’m going to worry about the most important person on the planet for a while and work on changing who they are.
That person can make a difference in their community and the best news is they can run but they can’t hide from me.
Subjects to change 