“If you could float on the air of the earth, as if tides of unknown seas, perhaps you would understand, why I act like me.” – Timothy W. Tron, from my High School Days.
As a member of the cross-country and track teams, I was what they called a “Distance Runner”. I loved to get out on the open road and see how far my legs could carry me. There were times when I was in the moment and would look down at my churning legs and wonder how amazing it was that they were down there propelling me along the road, while I barely had to breathe to make it happen. Back then, it would take what now is my maximum distance just to hit my stride, five or six miles. Yet, back then, youth held no boundaries physically; I was only limited to what bounds I mentally placed upon myself. A long run on Sunday might consist of a twenty something mile run, which is more than I can do in a week at this time.
Today, it’s a different story. As I am now just beginning to reawaken the runner inside of me, I realize that I am trapped in a body that is physically much older than those high school days. As I strain in the heat, breathe heavy, legs feeling like they are lead weights, my mind wants to go faster, my spirit wants to soar, yet the constraints of time have bound me to this terrestrial constraint. Will I ever regain those days when there is no pain, only the free feeling of flight? I don’t know, but with each passing day, I now realize that time is a thief. It comes sneaking up, always present, never abating. Each journey out onto the road brings the realization that I have to listen more closely to the engine within.Yet, each time I regain a step or two where there are brief instances of that long ago time….ecstasy of earthbound flight.
Yes, time is a thief, but its also a wise teacher. This much I know.
I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. – Ecclesiastes 9:11
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