Gatsby's Birthday

I remember having a discussion on the beach with my husband...well, I remember many discussions together on the beach. This particular one was pre-popping-the-question;  It was a date, complete with a picnic and a threatening rainstorm, trying to fit in as much as possible before the lightning came too close.

"Favorite novel?" was the question I was trying to navigate with what I wanted to seem like decisive ease. Internally, it was not. Not decisive, not easy. I was racking my brain, listing through novel after novel, tossing out the non-fiction (not technically a novel, after all), suppressing a smile as I debated answering "Little Women" for a brief moment. How could I really explain to someone who'd never read Louisa May's brilliance that my whole persona as a young adult had been modeled after Jo March?

I landed on the perfect answer in 4 seconds flat (it is amazing how much information can pass through a person's brain in 4 seconds...).

"The Great Gatsby."

Geronimo Surrenders

September 4, 1886

During the late 1800's, non-Indian settlers were flooding into southwestern United States. The Chiricahua Apache nation, including the great warrior, Geronimo, spent decades leading raids against the Mexicans and Americans. Geronimo's mother, wife and children had been murdered at the hands of a group of Mexicans, and Apache land was disappearing at an alarming rate. For thirty years, Geronimo sought revenge.

Healthy Tips from Aristotle

Over half of the adult population in the United States makes the decision to start each day with a vitamin supplement, and the numbers are growing. Sounds like a step in the right direction, wouldn’t you say? At the very least, the adults in our nation seem to be taking a genuine interest in leading a healthy life.

While I am not here to change your mind about those supplements (I am certainly not a doctor! Though most adults are taking supplements by personal choice rather than from doctor recommendation), I would like to encourage you to think about your vitamin intake from a new point of view.

 Rather going into great detail about the number of toxins available to American consumers through their vitamin supplements – nearly ALL of the Vitamin C supplements sold today are made with genetically modified corn products – I will instead share with you the wisdom of Aristotle.

The same philosopher from the 4th Century B.C. who taught us “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference” (one of the wisest sentences ever uttered, in my opinion) also planted a garden and wrote about it, sharing his knowledge of cruciferous vegetables and their health benefits.

Ban the Trail Tweets

You may understand a few things about my personality at this point; particularly the idea that I have my own personal set of rules and I expect no one else in the world to even understand them, let alone follow suit. My rules are elementary (to me), yet to others they seem full of antitheses. If you take the time to scrutinize more closely, you'll find my general rule of life be quite simplistic: Savor every moment.

That's why I'm a trail runner. 

And yes, savoring life can have different pictures within the same frame: I love the fitness involved within the art of running, but I'd like my aide stations to be filled with M&M's and my finish line to feature pulled pork sandwiches. I love morning runs, but I'd prefer them to start MID-morning. I love to start off a race with a group of new-found friends and my all-time very favorite runner in the world, then end up on my own in the middle of the wilderness. I use the road for running when I need to think something through completely...the trail is for thinking about nothing but the intensity of the moment. And I love to blog, but I have little use for social media.

Trail running invites you to become a minimalist, to focus, to test your personal limits in ways you never dreamed of before, and to truly, deeply understand that there is no room on the trail for worrying that you may lose both your dignity and your pride, especially if you showed up at the start line with too much to begin with. 

And that kind of place, compadres, has no room for Tweets or Instagrams. 

Boston IS America

It has taken me over a week to have the heart to write about the tragedy in Boston on Patriot's Day. Many of those days were spent getting over the shock. Then there was the time spent watching to see if they'd nab Suspect #2. Throughout all of that I dug through story after story, watching, reading, and listening for a common theme.

I sorted out my own story, my love for the city of Boston, for not only the Boston Marathon, but the entire running community, and my love for this beautiful nation. I started to write a few times, but didn't want to bore you with my own memories of waiting on Boylston Street, dashing across the Charles River in the rain or eating clam chowder on a cushy bar stool at what used to be called the Bull and Finch Pub.

I also didn't want to potentially bore you with non-fiction commentary that I personally find fascinating...the Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed's Hill nearby; it took 86 years for the Red Sox to win the World Series after trading Babe Ruth to New York; or that the streets of Beantown were once flooded with 2.3 million gallons of molasses moving at 35 mph.

My son found the common theme in this nightmare before I did, and pointed it out without realizing how deeply his words struck me.

Ditch Your Control Issues

Simplicity, as a way of being, goes way beyond making dinner in six ingredients or less. It is more than consolidating errands or cutting back on spending.  And it is deeper than limiting the number of invitations given to a birthday party or reducing the size of the front yard flower bed. While these ideas are helpful in the short term, they do little to reduce the stress levels of an overly complicated way of living in the bigger picture of life.

Certainly do make those changes as you journey toward a more simplified lifestyle. However, as you embark upon the adventure of disentangling the complex minutes, hours, and days that make up your life, remember that the keys to achieving personal goals can only be found deep within yourself.

A common characteristic of people (no one group in particular, just a basic human trait) is the interminable need to control. We have an insatiable desire to exert our own control over others, over the community, over nature…everything. The best thing we can do with that need?

Let it go.