Run hard–long slow joy.
I have never seen the sunrise come fast–it always comes but it is slower than expected.
I have never seen truly wonderful things arrive fast–and I have seen quite a few come to me.
I have never seen a finish line come faster than I expect. I almost always finish–actually always. But the end comes slower than I want.
The process is long, slow is good (especially at the beginning), and there is a cascade of joy in this deal.
I am an athlete.
A few days before the Run Rabbit Run 50 miler, I called my brother Dick in Albuquerque.
We laughed about how I have this personal affirmation that I mutter to myself as I run, “I am an athlete”. I mean we laughed and laughed—a sort of goofy holler that a few of us Hensleigh sibs got from PW Hensleigh.
Anyway it is funny because there is not a one of us Winchester Kansas Hensleighs that you ever think of as an athlete. Personally I never scored a basket even though I loved basketball and followed it avidly. I never made a tackle or caught a pass even though I was on the field a fair bit. I never scored point at a track meet or even ran on a relay. We had a decent track team and an excellent coach but it did not effect my performance.
My other bros and sisters were about the same–known more for music and achievement tests than athletic ability or performance.
Regardless, for me to understand that I was created to move and perform as an athlete is not just true, it really helps when I face one of those 12 mile days with 95 degree weather. And it has helped me immensely to get a vision for my Best Third Third as a fit and active old guy.
You see to run that 50 miles, I had to have the qualities of an athlete–training, finishing, using my strengths, joy.
I thank Bishop Gwin at Love Corner for pointing out from the Bible that we are athletes, and for the Younger Next Year guys for writing a simple inspirational guide that I use every day.
I saw this phrase the other day and it made so much sense. With running and with so many important initiatives in life I can let the fear of the day by day get to me and paralyze me. Actually the fear should be in whether or not I make the goal –if there is to be any fear at all.
Actually doing the day by day stuff is how we get to a goal–so if the little senseless fears of the daily process get to me– I am dead in the water due to lack of training and progress.
I have realized more and more that I have a fear approach with several areas–including money. This is irrational and a blocker.
The guys who followed the great teacher wrote things that are vital for knowing what it means to finish.
Eric Liddell won Olympic gold in the 400. And he lived a Christ-follower life. He died a finisher–serving the smartest teacher ever.
I walked the lonely beach at San Agustanillo, Oaxaca last week–I am a traveler.
Recently there has been a move by niece Michelle to republish the Hensleigh family cookbook–wonderful.
She asked each of us remaining Hensleigh sibs to write a memory of our parents and the farm in Winchester, Kansas. There are of course many–some of them very positive and some to be forgotten.
One of the most vivid and life changing for me relates to how my folks recognized that I loved travel. Of course they did and so perhaps it was just encouraging me and all of us in a direction that they loved and knew was valuable.
But especially my mother recognized on early Colorado trips that I thrived on it. So they pushed me out the door on numerous occasions to go somewhere away and stay as long as I could.
The best trip was when I was twelve and they spontaneously sent me with cousin Doug to California in an old station wagon–a trip that ended up lasting a month or so. This one included the ocean for the first time, the California coast, the Pacific Northwest and then back across Washington, Oregon, Idaho etc back to Winchester.
Now I have this Mexico tour business, taking small groups of curious travelers to the less traveled places of Mexico. Trips like the small group trip to Oaxaca last week are just what I was designed for–and my folks saw it way back then.
Photography is a skill I have–and I love it when I have a subject like this Laura Bugharrini pot in Mata Ortiz. So am I willing to work ON my skill–not just IN it?
I am a designed being. Nothing could be more obvious.
I am gifted–and that is a developing reality.
But here is the question: as I use these precious moments I have, how do I invest the time? If I spend all my time working with my gifts that is good. But will I take the time as a higher (be it less demanding) priority to work ON my skills and gifting. Or will I get so busy working IN my gifting that I get stale and loose my passionate and creative edge.
Whooo! This is fun to run (I mean live all out) in alignment with what I am good at. And it is even more rewarding as I get older. But only if I am GROWING older…and that means getting better at what I excel at.
So here is what happened: yesterday my son Luke Hensleigh called me with a WordPress.org question. I knew what he needed, knew how to solve the issues he had, knew the wordpress dashboard in my head–you get the idea. See, I knew all of this because I have taken the time to work ON my skill of writing and photography and creativity–not just IN it.
Here is how to do this:
So when I was running all summer getting ready for this 50 miler, it was all about working ON. The when I showed up there in Steamboat, it was all about IN.
I loved both parts.