Transformation often happens when we cannot see the path ahead, and when uncertainty demands something of us that was not there before. There is a power in white space, the margins. It is the power of possibility.
Read MoreMy Writing Journey
Book Review: The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté, MD
A few days ago, I finished Gabor Maté’s The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture. It wasn’t a book I’d been planning on reading, but within its 500 pages, I found the compassion and love inside of myself that I have needed to heal, and to move forward in life. Join me for the first of many book reviews.
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A frigid morning revealed the intricate patterns of ice crystals upon the ground. Fractals are patterns that perpetuate ourselves… as can be behaviors, desires, thoughts and other patterns that govern our daily lives.
Frozen Fractals: How Patterns Teach Us About Ourselves
I can see my breath as clouds in an unnamed place on the Applegate Emigrant Trail, somewhere between the Nevada Ghost town Vya and distant Denio. These are the spaces that I have come to love— not only because they are vast and mysterious in their silent histories, or loud with spaces in the histories they omit, but because they ask silent questions of us when we are fully present within them.
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Marlette Lake 50K: Power of Embodied Metaphors
How I got to the starting line of an ultramarathon—my first 50k— wasn’t exactly a straight line.
In a lot of ways, it reminds me of how I became an athlete to begin with— through happenstance that included an eating disorder, getting over that, freelancing for local newsweeklies and then a lot of Master’s degrees. It was a journey one of my thesis advisors asked, after reading my thesis, which turned into my first book: “Do you think this would be in the self-help section of the bookstore? Like, as a how-to for other people who want to get into long-distance running?”
“Good God, I hope not,” I said….
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Certification: Complete!
A bit over a year ago today I started a journey down a path I never really envisioned myself walking. For over a decade, I’ve been a professional writer, a co-author, a product reviewer, a technical writer, a blogger, a literary essayist and an elite endurance athlete. Never-ever in that map of my own identity did I—or could I— see myself as an entrepreneur, a business owner and/or a coach, but somehow, that’s where I’ve arrived.
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The Life I Love
It only goes so far to define your life by what has happened before. I realized this week that I’m much more interested in where my life is going than where it has been. Granted, where it has been is what my book is about, and sending that out opens another can of worms that typically results in me having the worst anxiety attacks ever… which has led me to wanting a new beginning, a new start.
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Revising Expectations, Revise Your Life
I went on the prescribed ten-mile “easy” run this morning anyway, hitting the trail around 6 a.m. and watching distant storm clouds cast God rays on mountains across the valley. In a way, I am grateful I have a bit extra time to train (I can really pick how much extra time I have), and to really settle into running a lot more miles (and see if this is even something I can do, given how much I’ve been injured before.)
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A New Starting Line
This morning, I watched the sunrise light the eastern horizon beneath pink cotton candy clouds as I ran alone along the shoulder of Alexander Lane that climbs up one side of Rattlesnake Mountain and down to Veteran’s Parkway. Around mile four or so, the road eventually meets the bike path where I spent my mornings rollerskating by the marshes last year. If I’m completely honest, I wasn’t sure I could complete the entire 6.5 mile loop this morning, running, but since it was 5 a.m. and I was up anyway, I thought: why not give it a try?
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