Sun Salutations!

I detoured this morning from my usual running path along the shoreline of Lake Michigan and headed down the long sidewalk that goes out to North Point lighthouse. I felt like I was running right into the lake. I have felt like that a lot lately, as I was recently downsized out of a job that I love. These things happen. It is like getting dumped by a lover. You want to hate the dumper, but you still cherish great memories of times gone by and you harbor many things that you love about the person. Or the institution. Moving on.

So there I was running into the lake, so to speak, and I came to the place where it gets too rocky to keep going and I noticed that there was a conveniently level, smooth patch of cement, and this cement patch was perfectly aligned with the 6:30 a.m. sun. The cement patch screamed out to me, “Sun Salute!” So I took my key out of my pocket so it wouldn’t fly out and land somewhere I would regret and I did a yogic sun salute. If you have taken any yoga class worth its salt, you have done the sequence of poses. It is an envigorating series of movements and I had never done the sequence outside. It is especially nice to do it right under the brilliant eye of the sun.

I ask you, when was the last time you thanked the sun for getting up every day and giving us this amazing world, flawed as it is at times? Seriously. You should try this. Try thanking the sun, the next time you see it. I don’t know. It worked for me. I mean, it made me feel like today is going to be a very fine day.

At the end of my run, there is a mildly steep hill. Mildly steep, but quite long. In fact, I wrote about running up this hill in my previous post. Often times, I stop running at the bottom and just walk (vigorously) up. It is hard to run up this hill after a half hour of exertion. But today, I thought, I am going to run up this damn hill. So I did. I could see the garbage can that is at the top, and I said to myself, “If you don’t give up, if you make it all the way to the garbage can, you will get the best job ever.” This gave me encouragement, and I actually ran a little harder. “Run to the garbage can and you will get the best job ever!” How’s that for a mantra of success?

I made it to the garbage can. I was out of breath, my heart was pounding. But, I made it. You know, we do whatever it takes to work through life’s little challenges. Morning runs, sun salutes, down-sized jobs, steep hills, garbage cans. A friend of mine from Malawi gave me a good thought the other day. He said, “In all things, be thankful.” To that, I salute.

Onward to that great new job.
Good morning, Sun!