Attitude

One of the athletes I coach recently wrote this comment after a training session.

Running with the wind in a sail boat never feels very fast. Tacking across the wind gets exciting. The wind whistles and the spray breaks over the bow, and then, as you come about, there is a moment of slowing and then a surge, as the wind fills the sail. Strides on a trail are more like tacking across the wind, and for similar reasons, I love them. I love rounding a switchback, and hearing the wind. I feel fast and strong. The mind is happy, much more focused on feel than fact, and that is just fine this morning.

That moment of calm between pressures as you tack is a reminder that things exist whether we notice them or not, that all conditions change, that our experience is as much a feature of our attitude toward them as the things themselves.