Running shakes off the Blues

I try to run every other day. Mornings are best, but when I feel days have passed and a little sluggish, I’d get home after work and go out for a 3 mile run. Avoiding the blues, lethargic, even sick, I push myself and get out. Running is not difficult for me, there’s not a lot pain. This summer there were extreme humid days and I should have skipped those days, breathing was difficult, my muscles ached since they were not receiving the rich oxygen; I stopped running and would walk losing time and feeling the pressure of getting on the road to work. Of course the spring and summer are best. Getting out with a long sleeve t-shirt that soaks up the sweat is best. My sneakers are light and I try to run in shorts as often as possible. My faded orange baseball cap had sucked and dried up layers of white sweat stains. Sometimes I assume strangers look at me and guess if I played ball. Thoughts swirl back and forth, and there have been some satoris or awakenings during some runs. My writing has been effected in a positive way, the ideas of a scene – how it would develop - the narration, a character emerges or a scene shifts and when I get home I try to remember it all. When I travel I like to run in different cities, there’s an intimacy with the streets and the landmarks that only a runner can have. At home, there are a few occasions when I go out for long runs, to the end of the Port Jefferson harbor where the boats and ferries pass through a narrow opening…big rocks…the desolation of shells and abandoned wrecks. Those runs are rare, but when I get one in, I feel a closer connection to God and send off prayers in the salty breezes.