The Words Between Your Limbs

Q & A

How can you run with out losing everything?  You always risk losing something.  Friends, your favorite place to sit and think…But usually, the things that you find out you really don’t want to run from, the things you tell yourself you want to run from…but that you really love…usually those things, or at least parts of those things…end up staying with you no matter how you run.  They will find sneaky ways to you in songs that play or boxes on your porch filled with coffee beans and sweaters.  They will call on you in memories that refuse to fade…  How can you run with out being mean?  Well, first of all, running away, running away can often hurt more than punching someone in the face.  (metaphorically, of course…and literally, I suppose)…The greatest thing that I have learned, the thing I would like to think I will carry with me through the new year, and through life after that….is that….being honest, although not always as easy as running, and although might initially seem “mean”….being honest is the greatest gift you can give anyone.  I don’t mean to sound like Mr. Rogers or Dr Phil, but before you run, why don’t you try being honest?  With yourself, with someone….Because, I’ve got to ask you…why do you want to run?  Don’t run.  I’m trying really really hard not to run.  Lets do it together, okay?  Lets only run towards things, not away from them.  I know you might be trying to avoid being “mean” or you might be trying to avoid hurting someone, or getting hurt, I don’t know what it is you want to run from…but as much as the whimsy idea of running seems like the greatest answer (and as a reader I’m sure you know how strange it is for me, the runner of all runners, to say…) — it isn’t.  Like I said.  Towards things, not away from them.  And if you do run, always take trinkets of what you love with you.  I promise, you’ll miss them.