Posts

Showing posts from December, 2016

Night Running: Knowing the Way

The days are short and my seven mile run ran out of time. I was on my trails in the woods and it was dark. All I had was the outline of the beaten path to guide me. Running at night like this is sort of other worldly. Not being able to see my feet that well, it was like running over the earth rather than on it; a kind of magic carpet ride in the dark. I had done this trail many times so without seeing, I knew where the trip hazards were. Two large shapes loomed across the trail just ahead: deer, who scampered off a short distance to watch this crazy human run in the dark. The path God has set before us is well tread, the hazards well-marked. And, even in the dark times when life seems to run out of light, we still can know the Way.

Leaving a Mark

We all want to leave a mark, a memory, a thought, for all who might remain. But why? Isn't that an ego experience, to leave something of us alive here on earth? Is this just a thinly disguised attempt to avoid death? In the secular and in the long term, we will not avoid death. It is hard to accept our own present, and certainly future obscurity. The song goes, "will all who come behind us find us faithful?" But reality suggests that unless we are one of the very, very few, the ones who come behind us won't find us at all. Except for a few, what we will leave is a nameless influence. The habits, tendencies and beliefs we imprinted through influence, by our own force of character is all that will remain. And in death there is not ego. We will most likely not be given credit for that influence we leave. And why should we? The habits, tendencies, and beliefs we left are just echoes of the imprints someone nameless left us. We won't get credit and