Do you smile?

"Life is both dreadful and wonderful...

To meditate well, we have to smile a lot.

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment.

I know this is a wonderful moment."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Running is not easy. There are good days, and bad days. Days when your legs feel like wings, and others when they feel heavy and earth bound.

When I feel earth bound and heavy, I focus on my breathing, my inhale to calm - yes, this is hard, and I feel tired, but it will get easier - and with my exhale, smile.

I smile when a squirrel darts across the trail ahead, and flicks his tail before scurrying up an oak.

I smile when a bluebird flashes through the forest in undulating grace.

I smile when I've reached the crest of a winding ridge, and below me imprinted in the forest floor the silvery ribbon of a stream or river.

I smile when I see the yellow-green moss clinging to rocks I'm running across and leaping over.

I smile at the roots of hardwoods that seem like fingers holding fast to soil.

I smile when I come to a steep hill, and I dig down deep and throw my mind and body over it's precipice. 

I smile when my shoulders relax, and my body is straight, and my lungs expand and drink in the fragrance of pine trees after rain. 

I smile when the croaks of frogs in a marshy lowland fill my ears with cacophonous melodies. 

I smile when the red-tailed hawk flies across my vision, and I follow her determined trajectory across the sky and out of sight.

I smile because I am, in this present moment, nothing more than another creature of the woods.