December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

Quite honestly, I’ve done a terrible job at cultivating peace in my life this year.  Although working on a completely independent project — setting my own deadlines and goals and such — is cool in a million different ways, it also means I always feel a bit under pressure to make more progress than I am and push harder than I do.  Instead of the pressure coming from external sources, its internal, and (for me) that means that I’m never quite at peace exactly.  Even when everything around me is peaceful.

The closest I get to peace is when I’m running — breathing deeply, listening to my footsteps, focusing on how my body feels, and being inside my own head.  When I’m feeling low, I remember what it’s like to run a long race — all the training and sweat and tears that go into it, and then that amazing feeling of accomplishment when you finally cross the finish line.  Everything else in my life tends to get put into perspective — and what felt so overwhelming before, ends up feeling completely manageable by the time my run is over.

Yeah, those are my moments of peace.  What are yours?

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This post is part of Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 challenge.