Taiji Running

Today, I should have gone for a long bike ride but my cycling buddy cried off as ‘it was cold and windy‘, so I went for a run instead, just a short one, on my own, in the wind and the cold…because I could either stay at home and look out at the weather or I could enjoy being out in it, as I would’ve done as a child…setting off, climbing a metal five-bar gate and sliced my fingers on a rogue bit of metal; walked home to patch myself up with tea-tree and plasters and then off I went again….walked to warm up; climbed 7 five-bar gates; ankle deep mud causing slipping and sliding and testing of balance and muscles; water-logged fields causing splashing and stone balancing route-taking; short up-hills and downward trail pot-hole negotiating; alternating walking and running and then walking to cool down.
In taiji there are often references to ‘be like a child’ – toddlers have perfect posture and are soft…so I was mindful of this saying throughout my run…listening to my body, softening any tensions, enjoying mud and wet feet, slipping and sliding, climbing and leaping, cool air filling my lungs…arriving home relaxed, smiling, happy…like a child (albeit an older one!)

Time

For most of us life gets incredibly busy. I know that my days tend to revolve around work and meetings and fitting everything in around school hours and then school homework, just to make time more crammed and stressed along with a multitude of other boxes that need to be ticked. Rushing from one thing to another, losing sight, making time pressured.

Sometimes we have to make ourselves stop and take time out and remind ourselves of the things that really matter. Slow down time.
Taking time off from work and being at home sounds great, but then it’s difficult not to be distracted by jobs that have been left undone and another different level of work starts to happen, cleaning, tidying, decorating, gardening and on and on it goes.

Today, hot sun, blue skies (again!) Me and daughter pack two towels, food and drink and walk through fields of cut hay, lying drying in the sun, waiting to be made into bales. Always an indicator as to how long the dry weather will last is how quickly the local farmers process the cut grass. Our farmers appear to be in no rush to create bales. Turning the grass reguarly to make sure the moisture is being driven out.

Onwards we walk to the river, just four fields from my house, to meet two villagers for a picnic and a swim. Food is shared and enjoyed, stories are told. The sun is hot and the river inviting. The coolness of water as we swim is refreshing and the setting is stunning. Laughter fills the air as we slip on wet rocks as we make our way downstream, swimming and paddling as we make our way to surprise a neighbour by emerging from the river and into their garden that sits quietly by the river. Greeted by the neighbour as if people emerging from the river into their secluded garden happens on a daily basis.

We eventually swim our way back to our abandoned picnic.Reflecting on how lucky we are to be surrounded by such views, hidden swimming pools and good neighbours. Reflecting on how easy it is to stop noticing what we have around us and to become bogged down in the daily grind and forget to stop…slow time down and look around.

The day has been long and we say our good byes and plan other adventures for days to come.
Walking back over just four fields towards home, with a happy heart, my childs hand in mine, feeling incredibly lucky.

Cycling ‘app’en?

Monday. It’s early morning and it is hot. Sky is blue and my bike and the road calls. Cycle before it gets hotter, a rare occasion in England. I have a cycle app on my phone which I have not used (I’m not into apps). However, I’ve watched friends use theirs, so I decide to give it a trial. Thinking that it would not make any difference to my cycle ride. How wrong was that thought. Rather than being in the moment and listening to my body and surroundings, I was irritated by a voice that would announce at intervals my mileage and speed…creating tension and a harder than normal bike ride…
Same bike ride today, with two friends, no tension, much laughter, a cool swim in a mountain stream, more cycling, no competition, not caring about mileage or speed, just enjoying the moment, in the sun…and it felt easy…

Ulpha

This rugged landscape

Rests gently upon my eye,

Dry stone walls

Bisecting bracken green

or bracken brown

Seasons.

Coolness of slate grey and

rich warmness of iron ore

Cutting through where man hued

and toiled.

Fells rising either side

Herdwicks silhouetted on mountain tops

Rowans standing rock-fast

Defiant to the shaping blast of

Wind changing name changing

Mountain Ash.

cycling spring

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…first cuckoo heard when walking my dogs this morning, blue skies, coolness on the air…later, I’m looking out at grey skies, watching branches move as the wind picks up; I could just stay here and ‘admire’ the view, but I force myself to take my bike out, as I know that I’ll feel physically and psycologically better when I get back – just a five mile circuit, so my legs don’t forget…down to the lake I cycle and the valley is quiet, the air is indeed cold…taking the left turn to return on the ‘top’ road…first rain drops fall and I have no waterproof, but no matter, when you are wet, you are wet, and generally the human form is waterproof…onwards, a flash of white to my left catches my eye – a wheatear, just arrived in from Africa, along with the swallows that arrived earlier this week, and this mornings cuckoo…my heart lifts as I watch it fly from rock to rock…I could’ve stayed at home and not seen this new arrival…the birds are telling me that Spring has arrived, even though the weather tries to tell me different..I cycle on with a lightness, thanks to the wheatear.

Reflections

I look behind

To the person before

Glimpsing recognition

Familiar in looks and ways,

But a stranger of youth

Of life and innocence.

Looking behind

To the person before

Still somewhere here

Hidden amongst layers

Of life changes.

Look behind

To the person now gone

Reflections and adaptations

A nod of recognition, and turns

To the person to become.

Love is not

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

love is not,

dimmed lights of a restaurant

michellin starred meal for two

singular or multiple red roses

on a bended knee, or petal strewn

tablecloth, champagne chilled

death by chocolate and no

original thought, but romantic

stink of venetian canals

or parisian pickpockets on

whisked away secret surprise

weekend breaks.

This is what love is not.

Remember?

Dandelion wind (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

Standing open mouthed

Tongue catching snowflakes

Remember?

Orange, red and browns

Airborne from leaf kicking

Joy and Autumnal laughter

Remember?

Wetted legs and

Puddle drenched feet

Remember?

Arms outstretched

Catching wind gusts with

Dreams of flight

Remember?

Wet shoe and muddied sock

Brook leaping dares

Remember?

Held safe by boughs of mighty oak

Surveyor of your world

Remember?

Grazed elbows and bruised shins

Showing days of adventure and

Reckless abandonment

Remember?

Cycling and thought revolutions

….again needing ‘essentials’ (more bananas and a newspaper) I set off for my nearest shop. There are two roads into the valley that I live in; whichever one I decide to use I have to climb out of the valley. For a change I take the road that will make my cycle a circular ride. Realising that this will make my ride longer, but acknowledging to myself that I’m choosing this way as tomorrow I will be sitting in my car for three hours on my way to a course in a city and then another three hours to get home. I pedal away from home off my pot-holed track onto tarmac with the road rising gently, I can see the hill ahead of me; knowing that the bridleway to the right will take me down tracks, through farms and woods and will give me the opportunity to cut out this hill and make my ride easier. I choose to ignore it and stay on the tarmac. A storm damaged tree catches my eye and causes me to circle back and take a photo.

I carry on pedalling, watching my knees staying in line with my toes…thinking about cyclists I’ve observed with their knees not in alignment with their feet and thinking that surely that will cause problems and perhaps pain.

I arrive at the shop and buy my few things and pack them into my small rucksack…thinking that transporting our food from shops in our cars has perhaps been one of the factors that have caused people to get fatter…I set off cycling for home..observing people  carrying pies from the bakery to their vehicles…I have to stop to re-arrange the items I have bought as my rucksack is uncomfortable…noticing people passing me in their cars eating chocolate bars…thinking about shopping when I was a child and how it involved a two mile walk with my mum and other siblings (she got travel sick on the bus)…shopping for seven in our household and then carrying our weekly food back…thinking that when you are physically transporting food home, you become more selective in your food choices…buy one get one free offers? No thanks I can’t carry the extra…thinking that ease of transportation of our food has not done many of us any favours….thinking it’s hard to eat and cycle….

Shadow cycling…

Saturday morning, blue skies. Not working at the Barn Door Shop now and missing the cycle ride down the valley. Taking the opportunity of ‘needing’ a few essentials from my nearest village: the Saturday paper = to light our fire (that’s an essential, right?) and bananas (essential, right?). Using this excuse to cycle the mostly uphill 5 miles out of the valley…blue skies but a cool breeze around my ears, thinking maybe I should have put another layer on, but knowing my muscles will soon warm…body relaxing into the movement and motion…leg muscles feeling at ease as I push pedals…glimpsing the white rump and turned head of a deer in a wood as it watches me cycle past…soon passed by a car, wondering did you see that deer? Probably not…
On my return, the sun is starting to warm my body…my ‘essentials’ strapped securely in my rucksack…climbing the steep hill back towards home…the hill is long and wide due to the horses of past being unable to pull their carts directly up the hill and instead zig-zagged their way to the top…I sit, in lowest gears and push pedals to the top, knowing that as I reach the brow of the hill I have a long free-wheel towards home…watching my shadow as I cycle and how my body appears in the shadow…thinking about a time when I was in London and took myself off to quietly practice some Taiji in a park, standing practicing Master Huangs 1st Loosening exercise and then noticing my shadow on the grass and realising that my arm movements were wrong; realising that even though I had been told that my arm movements were wrong in class, it took the shadow for me to be able to see it…thinking about the karate lesson the previous week, where shadows were discussed: how would your body look if someone saw your shadow? Would you look strong…thinking about posture reflecting where we are emotionally at…shadow cycling comfortably and at one with the revolutions of the wheels…..