Starlit runs

I've been running every day this week. It started off well Saturday night, running laps around the track (sometimes it's nice to know exactly how far you've gone in what time). Unfortunately, I've been more sore than I usually would be because I spent Sunday on a jetski going 60 miles/hour, meaning I didn't really do much sitting on the jetski as I bounced over the waves, but instead was crouching, using thigh muscles that I forgot I had.

Though I am still sore, I've loved the time I've spent exercising. Not only do I feel good (yay endorphins), but I get to spend time with nature and with Don (it was his idea to start exercising regularly together). The few times we've run at nighttime, we've also layed and looked up at the stars. Those little, tiny pinpoints of light are perhaps the things that make me feel the smallest I ever feel. They give me a sense of wonderment, awe, insignificance...and yet, there is a feeling of individual worth and potential there, too - I think from the understanding that there is so much beauty in the world that fits together and works with a purpose, that I must fit in with a purpose, as well.

Life

The smallness of it all.
Yet the bigness, I can not wrap my mind around.
Like a distant thunder,
only half of the story. Gone within seconds.
This brevity stretches on and on
blurring into all eternity.
But my ignorance is satisfied
by the knowledge:
There is no time,
only age
There is no death,
only life.

Fresh Start

January 1st never quite seems like the real new year to me. Being a student, the new year starts in late August/early September -- at least that is the way I think of it. I tend to go into each new school year with strong feelings, goals and ideas about the way it will go. At the end I always look back and think, wow, I never could have predicted that.

So, my fresh start. Will officially begin September 3rd. My fresh start involves spending more time with nature. This idea with nature was inspired by a long walk with a good friend late last night - perfect, beautiful and calming. I think nature is food for the soul, and my soul is hungry. I could grow a plant in my room (I've been bugging my Mom for a bamboo plant); I could go for evening walks; I could go for morning runs; I could bike around the countryside; I can work in the organic garden. I can choose whatever I like!

Other parts of my fresh start...I will begin to intentionally live joyfully and with love in my actions, thoughts and words. I am naturally a joyful person, but over the past year I feel that somehow I have lost some of my joy. I will identify little specific ways to help me grow again in this area.

I think that this blog will help me to record my thoughts and growth in positive ways. I chose my blog name to be beautypeace because I feel that those are things I look for and strive for in the world and in my life. Plus, the name ties into my "fresh start" goal: joy.

"I do it for the joy it brings, cause I'm a joyful girl. 'Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world." -Ani Difranco, lyrics to Joyful Girl