Friday, May 10, 2013

Running on Soul

There sat Mount Hookaana in the warm Hawaiian night, its peak enshrouded by a flowing swath of steam clouds.

This is the name Renee and I gave to the giant incline in our neighborhood - its underlying infrastructure the slope of a volcano - that used to be my daily running triumph when I lived in the Hoogs' ohana.

The mountain top beckoned, silencing the chronic hip pain that has kept me from running since August. Throughout the past year, marked by so many successes in my educational and professional journey, a very crucial part of me has been compromised by this mysterious and pervasive injury. My soul, more so than even my feet or my physiology, is the fuel on which I run. And in forced stillness, my whole self hurts. 

I breathed in deeply, ingesting with profound nostalgia delicious, plumeria soaked oxygen. I thanked God for the rain - and I ran - my heart pumping fiercely, calf muscles burning that wonderful burn. I felt deep gratitude for the sensation of infallible strength throughout my being, and pain, I decided, could wait until morning.




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