Spiritual Movement

By Marc Bloom


When the late great running philosopher George Sheehan, M.D., gave motivational talks to runners, he often quoted the wife of a running convert: "My husband used to be a Methodist. Now he's a runner." Running may not be a religion, but as Dr. Sheehan would go on to say, "It's a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal." Indeed, many runners consider the roads and trails as places of worship, where they reflect, dream, and give thanks. After all, a church, synagogue, or mosque isn't defined by its four walls. Rather, it's a place where people of shared beliefs gather to connect with themselves and those around them and show their gratitude for the blessings in their lives--sometimes even a PR."The spiritual benefits available in running--appreciating nature, developing a communion with others, seeing how things in the universe connect, meditating--can quiet the mind, facilitate introspection, and help you become more virtuous and whole," says Warren A. Kay, assistant track and cross-country coach, associate professor and chair of the religious and theological studies department at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. As Kay and other running theologians have found, you can become a more relaxed, satisfied runner with spiritual awareness--no matter your religious beliefs (or lack thereof). Spirituality 101It's been well documented that a spiritual outlook can positively impact your overall health. Numerous studies have found that people with spiritual ties deal with stress better, recover from illness faster, and ultimately, live longer lives.Although the specific link between spirituality and athletic performance has yet to be scientifically explored, Kay says he sees anecdotal evidence for it in his class, The Spirituality of Running. Kay first offered the three-credit course last fall. There was so much interest he had to turn students away. To enroll, students must be avid runners. Some are on the track or cross-country squads; others run in other sports or on their own. Kay's students, 25 in all, come from many religious backgrounds. During the semester, they discuss the historical role religion has played in sports, analyze spirituality in running literature and film, and write personal essays about spiritual experiences they've had while running.Kay, 53, a former 1:54 college half-miler who runs 30 miles a week, hopes his lessons help students look beyond the performance aspects of the sport and use their runs to discover more about themselves and the world around them.Jacqueline Fazioli, 21, says Kay's class helped her gain strength from her teammates. "Cross-country is not an easy sport," she says. "But it can be made easier by the people around you. Making that connection is a spiritual thing."Another of Kay's students, Adam Johnson, 22, said the ideas he learned in class helped him cope when he couldn't run. "When I had an injury, I was able to put things in perspective. It changed the kind of runner I am. I now run as an expression of myself rather than for competition."That doesn't mean that spirituality and competitiveness can't coexist. Scott Jurek, who won the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon for the second time in July, credits his meditative approach to running for his racing success. "When I go running I call it 'turning off the noise,'" says Jurek, 31, of Seattle. "Some people solve problems or listen to music. I try to focus on my body and enjoy my surroundings. This helps me in races. I'm able to go on autopilot and push through difficult moments. People will ask, 'How did you do that?' and there's really no explanation; it's spiritual."What Jurek describes might sound familiar. This heightened state of consciousness is as much "Zen running" or "getting in the zone" as it is spiritual. The concepts and payoffs are the same: Running "in the moment" with a greater sense of awareness and appreciation can make you a stronger, more confident runner and perhaps a more content individual, in general.Former cross-country champion and Olympian Doris Brown Heritage says the spiritual quality of her runs enhances her overall quality of life. "I run every morning with an attitude of worship and thankfulness as nature unfolds, says Heritage, 64, a track and cross-country coach at Seattle Pacific University. "There are things outside ourselves that can feed our souls."To develop your own spiritual connection with running, the Rev. Roger D. Joslin, an Episcopal minister in Bentonville, Arkansas, and author of Running the Spiritual Path, says to concentrate on your breathing (for more tips, see "Higher Powers,") "Listen to the sound of your feet, feel the shift of the wind--but more than anything, listen to your breath," says the Rev. Joslin, 55, who has run three marathons. Focusing on your breathing enables you to still the mind and become aware of things--including the simple pleasure of running. "When running is joyful and calms you and frees you to be creative and think of the positive side of life," says Heritage, "then it's truly worthwhile."

Blue Hills: A Spiritual Perspective

by Margaret Lathrop


"I shall lift up mine eyes unto the everlasting hills."
I love that sentence. I love its musical inflection and its evocative beauty that conveys a sense of inner stillness and profound comfort.
The poet was not speaking about mountains, but rather he spoke of pastoral hills, gently undulating along the horizon like waves of a placid lake on a summer day.
Mountains are not comforting. They are awe-inspiring and fiercely beautiful, but they are also overwhelming in their majesty, and rather intimidating.
But hills hold their valleys cupped gently as a child holds a butterfly, protecting the valleys from the ravages of storm and tempering their climates in small ways about which we so seldom think.
These low, blue hills that surround our valley town are the sort of hills that the ancient psalmist had in mind, and no day passes that I fail to look toward them and marvel at their loveliness.
I think of these hills as the "blue hills," part of the ancient Niagara Escarpment that was built up untold millions of years ago by the skeletal remains of tiny crustaceans that lived in the shallow sea that once covered this valley. But their coloring shifts with the changing light and the revolving seasons. It ranges from sapphire to rose to indigo to muted violet.
Nothing on earth is truly everlasting but surely these encircling hills, ancient as they are, can give mortal man a sense of the eternal.
Once those hills were crisscrossed by small, forgotten back roads where it was safe to meander along at a pace of our own choosing. Often, my late husband would drive slowly along those roads, stopping often in order that we might savor the views of Lake Winnebago in the distance or breathe in the fragrance of the wild roses that cavorted so freely along the hedgerows.
Now those back roads have been altered to accommodate the increased volume of high-speed traffic of our present age.
When folks get into their vehicles and turn on air conditioners and soundtracks, they successfully insulate themselves from the natural world. They become as strangers in their own country, cocooned and separated from the very land that sustains them. There's a sadness in such purposeful separation.
Speaking only for myself, I can say that now more than ever I am wedded to the beauty of the world without which life would seem sterile.
From crimson sunsets to shimmering moonlight to the translucent light that pours itself across these ancient hills at dawn, I am sustained and comforted by the artistry of the Creator. In their constancy I find a spiritual perspective that allows me to let go of the heartache of loss and find comfort in knowing that long after my feet no longer follow the earth path, my soul will remain a part of this green valley and my spirit will become a part of the luminous light that flows across "these everlasting hills."

The Spirit Survives

by Margaret Lathrop

Throughout the tumultuous story of the human race, across the multiple millennia, that part of the human psyche we would define as being of the spirit has somehow endured.

There have been many times and there will be many more yet to come when history has inflicted such grievous wounds upon that spirit that it has gone almost dormant.
But like the desert rose, when circumstance brings a change for the better, it blooms again.
Like the mythical phoenix, the human spirit rises from its own ashes.
Always we recognize the manifestation of man's innate spiritual capacity in his ability to perceive and appreciate beauty, his ability to experience compassion and to manifest that empathy in altruistic deeds, even self-sacrifice.
And finally, the presence of the spiritual side of our nature is expressed through creativity and the urge to create, to take the raw clay of our existence and form it into something that is beautiful.
Even when times were darkest there have always been some among us whose heart could soar across the heavens on the wings of some lonely raptor.
Always there have been those who never entirely let the songs of their spirits go still. Always when life seemed its most desolate there have been those who paused to look up and see hope in the far off fire of the stars.
Knowing history as well as I do, it's safe to say that life has always been precarious. Life can change in the blink of an eye.
What with wars and famines and the sudden eruption of disease and every sort of weather one can imagine, we have always been challenged and often we have been, at least temporarily, defeated.
Climate change itself is nothing new. It has had a major impact on human history for as long as earth has been a home for living creatures.
In many ways, it's amazing that we have endured as long as we have. And yet our human spirit has learned to sing, to dance, to laugh, to love and to create and appreciate beauty.
There is no doubt in my mind that we will continue to do so regardless of what the future may hold.
We will never be content to just survive. Even if only a few of us do so, all of us will benefit when the few look up at a star-studded firmament and experience a sense of profound wonder.
Many may pass a flower growing through a crack in the pavement, but if only one of us pauses and is touched by its beauty, it will assure that the human spirit will not perish. The lone singer on a barren hillside under a rain-drenched sky will be the one who keeps the flame of our spirit burning bright.
We are bound together by the common warp of our human nature. And through that warp runs a golden light that can never be extinguished. It is the eternal flame of the Divine Spirit that manifests itself in the creature we call "man."