"The Invitation" borrowed from Pol @ ZMOnline

Chicken Soup - The Invitation

Read Pol's Chicken Soup from this morning here!

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

http://www.zmonline.com/

I'm Back!!!!

It's been something like three years since I posted, which is terribly scary.  So whats happened, my running has fallen to the side which is really very disappointing and I want to kick myself in the butt.....  grrr me!!!

2007 was a massive year running wise, The Rotorua Marathon in May then three half marathons later that year (Whangarei, Auckland and Kerikeri again); what a year!!!!  I just loved it.  Then we moved to Nelson December that year and the climate change on top of a new job threw my training into disarray.  Whangarei is humid all of the time whereas Nelson is just plain hot and dry, my god, so dry.  And hills, we had a house on the top of the biggest hill in town so whatever way I went there was a hell of a hill to come up at the end.

So my running became very sporadic.  I had hoped to go back up to Rotorua in May 2008 and do the marathon again but training just didn't work for me.  I considered Christchurch but with work and a new town.... running was pushed to the back seat.

Meanwhile, eating lots and not enough exercise... oh my god, all that weight that came off went back on, but not as bad as before.

So, 2008 was absolutely hopeless for running and sticking to plans, 2009 was a little better.  At least I set a reasonable goal and stuck to it, but again, a new job but this time not a new town, well not just yet anyway.  I joined the gym and was getting back into some reasonably routine running and decided on a local half marathon to do; through vineyards, what a better way to get back into it ...

But alas, 30 October 2009, i was up at Lake Rotoroa watching my daughter row and ran a bush track, just brilliant, I do love the off road stuff, sights to look at and no traffic to fight with.  Coming down the track and onto the seal again, and OMG, my calf... yikes I couldn't friggin move.  Thank god for the freezing cold lake, anyway, long story short, first major injury that took several months of physio to recover from.  There goes my plans for a half, the real grouch of the whole thing was I had just reached the hour run every other day ......

Surely that must bring me to the current, not in Nelson anymore, moved to Westport but with the same firm, thank god for that.  So many wonderful off road tracks and the reputed Buller Marathon and Half Marathon.  This years race was miserable and thank goodness I didn't run it.   

Anyway, that's a catch up on what has not been happening with my running.  I hope someone finds something interesting in all of this, who knows.