I did something a little different this year than my usual
dancing, wild celebrations, and drinking champagne to welcome in the New
Year. I usually try to gather all my
favorite people, but this year everyone had splintered agendas. I decided to spend the evening with one of my
beautiful mentors, Koby, who was a senior at Southwest High School when I was a
freshman. She showed me the ropes of racing
and running with the mind set of honoring mind, body, and spirit. Now she manages the urban farm which supplies
produce to Kim Bartmann’s Twin Cities restaurants, especially the newly opened
Tiny Diner.
Koby had a few friends over to her house for elderberry
cider, fresh appetizers, games, and, my favorite part, creating a vision
board. Koby’s friend Brittany instructed
us to leaf through magazines and cut out whichever images or words that struck
us. Then we pasted together our
clippings and explained what our artwork meant to us and how we thought it
meant for our intentions for the next year.
The women in the room were eloquent and verbalized deep analyses of
their boards. They spoke about medical
responses to mental health, the images missing from the magazines, and the
inversion of spaces to inhibit. The men
had more difficulty, or were less willing to analyze in depth. Explanations were more surface-level; i.e. “I
cut out Brussel Sprouts because I like them.” Either way, it was an excellent
challenge and reflection.
My collage focused on regaining my fitness, my need to
rejuvenate in nature, eating quality food, continued learning and exploring my
future beyond running professionally.
Two phrases which struck me were “the art of healing,” and “deep roots.”
I think I’ve been doing a great job of healing physically, but I’m lagging
behind on healing my mental and spirituality.
Creating a sense of community has been difficult for me in Seattle,
partially because I left so many deep relationships in Minneapolis, and
partially because I have had a hard time finding all the pieces I need to be at
peace in Seattle. For example, it took a
year for me to find a women’s rights organization that was willing to let me
volunteer with them. Even though I have
a pretty flexible schedule and I have a lot of experience supporting women’s
rights non-profits.
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