Is it just me or is the first thoughts that cross your mind as you rise from your sleep follows you throughout the day? That's probably why people put up nice posters and pictures in their room, so when they wake up they can have these positive thoughts and energy at the beginning of the day. As for me, three out of the four years in Delaware I didn't put up a damn thing on my wall. They were as plain as the day we moved in. I don't remember if I was dramatically unhappy in the mornings or if I had a significant difference in energy versus my fourth year. But a huge variable was I slept in my girlfriend room about 75 percent of the time. Her walls, on the other hand, had quite a few "wall designs." The most unique of them all was a painting or a drawing I'm not completely sure, either way it was colorful, bright and brought positive energy to the room. My point is, our thoughts, which are influenced mainly by what we see in the morning, will create a lens by which we view the world throughout the day.
Okay, back to my morning. I do a quick run through my text messages to see what i missed {before I go any further I must stop this ridiculous habit, because years of experience has proven that nothing good ever comes from reading the text messages you missed at night especially within the first few minute of getting up}. Next I took a look outside and then glanced at the two 8 by 11.5 inch "posters" that i have on my wall. One is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi "Strength does not come from physical capacity it comes from indomitable will", and the other a poem entitled "Don't Quit." I take a deep breath and say, I'm going go for a run. Grab my shorts and my iPod and head out.
During my run I learned two things: First, people in my town do not like runners or they just are not used to seeing people run; and second, the geese at the local park has either gotten very bold in the past few years or can read my mind that I'm not interested in bothering them not to fly away. While running along the main road I dash pass a few bus stops and unexpectedly I heard one guy say say, "look at this guy" another guy says, "wow" in a sarcastically sounding tone. Excuse me if I want to go for a run in the morning. But that's not even the whole thing. I'm running down the same block heading toward my last bus stop before I reach the park when this one lady in scrubs points at me and laughs with her overweight friend. Back when I was going to high school which was about 4 years ago we did that little ignorant laugh when we saw super obese people or something that was bizarre on some sense of the word. How can you point and laugh at someone running? Maybe my posture is off or I look funny when I run, I'll never know.
The geese in high school would run from us like we were actually going to hurt them. I am 100% sure that kids, while chasing geese if the geese instead turned as if to chase them, the kids will be petrified. Well that's how my run was today at the park. Dashing around corners at the park and dodging puddles. I didn't even notice the gaggle (group of geese on the floor) that was less saturated the next half mile of the track. Without thinking, I keep my pace and surprisingly the geese merely gave me the occasional eye as I run pass within arms length of these massive birds. The first two laps it was like i was running through a national geographic photo but the third lap was when I came back to reality. These birds were here for a reason, to eat the bugs that appear when it rains. Like any creature as it digests and breaks down food it produces waste. Instead of geese saturation the track was now saturated with geese crap!
Well that was a bunch of extra gabble, now to the point of this blog, my meditation challenge. After my run and before I showered I tried it. I closed my door, opened the window and sat with my legs crossed and my fingers clasped on my lap. I straighten my back and close my eyes. In order to ease my breathing I cautiously start rocking in a circular motion until I am so focused on the rocking that I don't even notice I'm doing it. That is the easy part. Now I have to mimic that feeling but with my breathing. I have to remain still and focus on nothing but my breath. Not consciously breathing but just observe the breath as it travels in the lungs and out the nostrils. Observing breathing without consciously interfering is difficult. I still do not think I actually accomplished true meditation because the act of clearing my mind wasn't completely full-filled. I was merely masking my thoughts by thinking about not thinking which is me thinking. But I will try again later. Now I must eat.
The overweight friend should have joined you instead of staring smh...
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