No Excuses
Yesterday I went for a glorious, blue-sky bike ride with my sixteen year-old daughter, and today I went for a sunny solo run. Although it’s February in southern Maine, the weather was fair and mild both days, and I realized that I need this and more of this: the time outside, breathing the fresh air, the exercise. I have to listen to the pull of my soul to get out of doors. I benefit most often from doing this in solitude or at least with someone, like my daughters or husband, who will let me pause in quiet and drink deeply of the wonders of the landscape.
I find I make too many excuses. It’s cold out. The sun looks like it will set soon. I’m tired. I’d rather be comfortable inside and snuggle in. I have too much to do. People are hoping to hear from me. I have calls to return, texts to reply to, emails to send. The house needs cleaning. The laundry needs to be run. I should spend extra time on creating a nice meal this evening. If I don’t get outside and run, I can spend more time in prayer or journaling or writing.
But all of these reasons: some honorable, some less so, though perhaps true, perhaps valid, overlook a need. The fact is, I need this time. My body needs the open air, the quickened heart rate, the deeper breathing of a run or a bike ride or a brisk walk. I crave birdsong and the crackle of leaves blown by a crisp wind. For optimal functioning, I require the sun on my face and the inner expansion that inevitably happens as I get out of four walls and into the world, as I reconnect with the natural world and with the Maker of that world.
I know it’s easy to make resolutions on a bright, warm day when the outside looks its appealing best and I am relatively rested. But I really do want to shed the excuses that so readily form and instead prioritize this active time outside from this early point in the year onwards. Anyone else want to join me? We can encourage each other. A quick daily check-in with something as simple as, “Have you done it? Did you get outside today? Did you move your body?”
“I will take my mind out of its iron cage & let it swim…I need solitude. I need space. I need air. I need the empty fields round me; & my legs pounding along roads; & sleep; & animal existence.” ~Virginia Woolf’s Diary, October 15, 1930
