Sunday 25 June 2017

Look



"You can observe a lot by just watching" ~ Yogi Berra 

If you are only interested in measuring stuff you might as well do it in a lab where conditions are stable .. measure your speed, distance, heart rate etc with your head down looking at the treadmill in a gym.

If you are running outside then you may as well make the most of it ... take a look around. Running is human powered movement at the speed of thought - it's a wonderful way to discover your community and to see the world around you.

I like seeing how the scenes I run through change over time  ... how people and places change with the seasons. A park in winter might be empty, wet and grey or crisp and bright with frost or snow. A park in summer might be full of life and colour - full of people, flowers and animals .. birds, insects, dogs etc. Its all part of our world and so easy to miss if you keep you head down.

While running I like looking out for new routes, things of interest and places to explore  .. wondering where a path might lead and if not taking it at random this time then noting it for another time.  

"Look out" ... looking around is essential to keep yourself safe ... particularly  along roads and especially at junctions. So many times motorists like to get ahead of you so that for some perverse reason you don't hold them up but making eye contact with them behind the wheel helps humanise them and they usually slow down to let a runner across ... you are faster than a pedestrian anyway and don't take that much time. You haven't got mirrors so be sure to listen out and look behind to check a car isn't coming up to turn across you if you are approaching a junction in the same direction as the traffic.

"To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe." ~  Marilyn vos Savant



If you keep your head down and treat life as a race to be run, then when the race has been run the race is all you will have known. On the journey of life look around and appreciate the people, places and the world you live in as you 

If you keep your head down you will miss seeing new things, opportunities and directions ... you will just keep running the same race and everyday will be groundhog day.

When things get tough its tempting to "hunker down", put the "nose to the grindstone" and plough on. Putting your "nose to the grindstone" can make things worse ... it can be like putting your head in the sand but focusing on the ground under your nose means you will not see the way the path goes further ahead .. not realising you are going round in circles or that you might run into a dead end, a brick wall or worse. It's often better to go heads up, zoom out, see the bigger picture see where the path goes and what other paths lay ahead.


I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world"

What A Wonderful World









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