Dear friends,

I have unexpectedly found myself on the forum hiatus following an increase of off-line activities due to the weather. We are using every moment to check the progress of the works on our house and the furniture hunting takes up the remaining time. We have no move date yet, but also have no indications the initial building plans would change significantly, so we keep checking things off of our lists hopeful that we’d be in early this summer.

Wardrobe-wise, these past few weeks have seen me reaching for either chambray shirt as the starting point of my outfits, for which the recent experiments offered a lot of options, or wearing BF jeans - those outfits too a revelation after the challenge I was given by Greyscale in the YLF Challenge Chain. (Which reminds me, I have to check what’s been going on with others in the meantime ).

Whatever time I have left, I’m trying to use for myself. I have started running again after the Winter break. As much as I tried to force myself to go and run in the Winter, I simply could not - the darkness and cold are not my friends. Maybe it’ll be different next Winter, but this time I simply hibernated. It’s an useful piece of knowledge about myself, the one that seems so obvious now that I figured it out (isn't it always like that?). It will hopefully help me navigate the next Winter better prepared.

What keeps me fascinated is how the relocation to different climate resulted with enriching contents, adaptations and realisations in all aspects of my life. My favourite must be the simplest and most obvious one - watching the seasons change. The colours, the trees, the shadows... The light! There’s a wonderful view of the small woods which separates us from the main road and which is just under our balcony. It’s by far my favourite feature of the current apartment. We’re low enough to see the grass and the bushes, the rabbits and squirrels once they come out, but we’re also high enough to see the sky though the tree tops.

It was one day last Summer, in the midst of the stressful period when I felt I could take it no more, that I finally put on my running shoes and run away from it all - to those trees. With numerous failed attempts over the last years to build my fitness levels through running, I expected I’d last only few weeks this time too. But, I found myself needing those runs for the sake of my inner calm more than anything else. It was proper me time.

Something was different this time though and it became clear to me once I switched to running through the neighbourhood thinking the change of scenery would make thinks different and interesting (I don’t listen to music when I run) - I don’t like running on concrete.

And I missed the trees, I missed that moment when I get tired then look up and see the green leaves and the sky. So, I went back to the woods.

It’s the gentle new green leaves that lured me out of the hibernation this Spring again. It just felt natural to put the running shoes on again and go out. Those runs once again fill me with great joy and calm.

I mentioned I don’t listen to music while I run. For the time being I don’t plan to start. There is something very purifying when a cacophony of thoughts is calmed down by the simple task of pushing through a physical barrier. And, one of the biggest challenges running has ever presented for me was handling boredom. So, I want to learn to be with myself in such moments. I'm trying to defeat boredom by thinking about positive affirmations. I have a feeling that music would be a shortcut to not thinking, while I want to learn to sort through whatever occupies my head. Meditation in motion.

• Question: Can anyone relate through their experience? Do you listen to anything while you run and how does it change the experience?

So, for now it’s just me and the gear, the only take on pastels I managed more or less successfully this Spring. The sky is not falling yet

~

Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous thread, as mentioned before off-line life just took over. There are some unanswered questions on it, which I hope to address in similar post in the future.

Also, I am not sure if this thread would end up post-and-run too, but I will return to it. Thank you in advance for your comments.