Earth Day Run - 2005
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Earth Day Run - 2005
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For me This years run started pretty much the same as last year. I needed to be finished with my segment and home by 9AM so my wife-mate could get to work on time. She's a librarian and her church's reading room and had to open at 10. So I start the run at 6AM so that I can finish, she picks me up at the lake, drops me off on her way to work and everyone is happy.
Oh, there was one little differece, it was 36 degrees outside and raining! But a commitment is always honored and so I set out to do my miles. Even with the cold and rain I was excited about a new ceremony that we were energizing at the run. More on this later but click on the rocks up top for a clue. As I started my walk I passed by my son's home and just as I did last year issued a prayer for him and wife Jules. By the end of mile one, the picture on the left, I was fairly soaked. I wasn't doing to bad until crossed the road to remove a garbage can from the outside lane. It was dark and raining and cars were slamming on brakes and skidding around the car in front in order to miss this garbage can so I felt I needed to get it off the streets. As a thank you for my efforts a huge dump truck came along just as I was tossing the can into a driveway and splashed water all over me from the waist line to my shoes filling them both with ice cold water. I'd do it again but....
Back to the walk. My running mates today all were carrying stones just as I was. We had decided to start "charging" stones by carrying them with us as we walked or ran. By doing this the stones would have been carried on a paticular walk or run and therefore have a history. Our plan was to pass these stones on to others we would walk or run with in the future so they would carry the stones that were carried in prior actions thus adding to the historical significance of the stone. A new tradition was born. We will see where it leads. I stopped to get hot coffee at a convienent store that was just to the left of the pizza parlor whose sign you can see in the picture in the precceding paragraph. I was soaked to the gills by this time and it actual had started to snow as well as ice rain. I still had 5 and a hlaf miles left to the lake but there was no going back. After I got the coffee I was standing outside the store questioning my sanity and I notice a free real estate for sale newpaper stand with a whole lot of papers still inside it. I fetched one out and folded it such that I could stick it under the back of my coat over my shoulders. The rain had already went through the duck down and my shirt was wet so to help keep the heat in I added this as insulation and proceeding toward my objective some 5.5 miles away. 
Now the whole time I was walking I was holding a batch of the stones in my hand alternating pockets with the stones every so often. When all the stones were in one pocket I would repeat the process and put them back in the other pocket. My guess was the the walkers on the
Stop The Bombs International Peace Walk had started walking also so I was thinking about them and praying for them for about the first three miles. During this stretch of road I passed by a construction site where they are about to build one of the super stores. What had once been a wooded area now was being converted into acres of pavement and buildings. It makes no sense to me. We have enough! Within a few miles there are already too many stores and shopping centers! One big guy builds one and the other smaller big guy goes out of business. The smaller big guy's store sits idle waiting for someone to buy or rent it but it never happens. This is just a viscious cycle of waste all so the big guys can get bigger! We need to stop this like Vermont has done. "Well" you say, " it provides jobs". Yes it does but wouldn't it make more sense to say buy out the smaller big guy and remodel and add on instead of destroying what already exists which in most cases isn't that old. This creates work for folks as well and isn't nearly as wasteful. Who knows?
Back to the streets again. At mile marker three there is a gas station with coffee! HOT COFFEE! When I went inside I was dripping on the floor and I was paying for the HOT COFFEE with water soaked money! I had to peel the bills apart and the lady behind the counter looked at me as if to say "You must be crazy". Well I got another cup and hit the road again. I was freezing by this time and basically I used the coffee to warm my hands. I had already charged my stones so that energy was spent and I was getting pretty spent myself. For about the next mile I was just trying to get to the turn off for the lake. I had some cramping in my calves and was not able to focus much on my prayers. I did get a pretty good
Mother Earth picture in this stretch. When the turn off came in sight it was a pick-me-up because I knew I only had about a mile and a half to go and it would be in the park, a beautiful place to walk.
 As I turned up the road to the lake I stopped to take my usual picture when I enter the park. I was energized by the fact that I was on the down hill stretch. I also knew that my brothers were probably in circle ceremony preparing to start their segment of the run. All the pains and agony of the cold disappeared as I concentrated my prayers to my brothers. I prayed for their saftey and well being. I also prayed for some of my other extended family who were going through difficult times. Several of these friends have sons in Iraq, some had recent deaths in the family. One of Jon's dear friends is dying of cancer and one of our young peacemakers has top have heart surgery. Others came to mind as I walked the park road bound for the lake.
Time was flying! I clutched the stones that I was carrying as if to compress more memories into them. As I walked I looked at the stones my feet were passing over and I felt a great connection to Mother Earth. Just one more little hill! I was able to see the lake before my feet actually got to the top. The wind was now blowing directly into my face instead of my back. The park roads wind around and so I was heading west instead of east and the ice/snow was now blasting me but it did not reduce the intense feeling I had when I saw the grandure of the woods, the lake and the island like appearance of the other side. I sped up to get close, it was all downhill. I clutched the stones with a death grip. I was home!
 I had to take a short break to use the bathroom. When I stopped to do this the fridged cold really hit me hard. I was still soaked and the wind down in the lake area is fierce, even in the rest rooms. I thought maybe I could light my pipe to get a little warmth for my hands but my fingers were so numb I couldn't even click the lighter. I knew whatever I did I had to keep moving to keep warm so I headed down through the parking lot to get my lake pictures. I was thinking at the time that I would take my stones and actually lower them into the water but when I got to the end of the walkway I knew I would just sink in the mud and sand which was washed out in places due to all the rain. I was still 75 to 100 yards away from the waters edge. I just snapped 3 pictures, turned around and headed up the hill. Since my ride wasn't there yet I figured I just better keep walking retracing my steps until she showed up.
I got all the way back to SR 125 before me mate showed up. She had been to the lake, didn't find me, went back home, came back and saw me the second trip up. Turns out she went to the boat docks instead of the beach area so it cost me an extra 1.5 miles but I didn't care. More prayers are a good thing. The guys showed up at Peace Hostel Amelia around noon. They had a good run and more importantly brought a veggie pizza pie with them. We gathered round the table and traded our stories. We had a good time just chatting and getting to know Craig a little better. Then we went outside, took the group picture, top of this page to the right ,and we went our separate ways, till the next time. We all felt we had done a service for our Mother Earth. John |
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