A number of locations in this and neighbouring forests have for me strong emotional associations; evoked by the scenery, the weather, the time of day and year - yes. But, because I am a lone runner, much more so by whatever is cogitating inside me. Just as heavy food and toxins will sweat from my body over the course of miles; similarly, frustration, despair, happiness and all the complicated cocktails of emotion which build and coagulate over time are given space to ooze or judder out of me. That I don`t often encounter anyone else makes these trails a vast private retreat. There`s liberty to yowl.
If I`m to run a half marathon distance over summer I need to stretch the journeys and so
revisited a long loping loop beyond Elibank castle. 8 miles or so .
And looking at the picture of my route I could point to memory-map co-ordinates of where I`ve stood when transfixed by birdsong and childhood homesickness.
To where I planned, in my mind`s eye, the smooth apple-wood sculpture of a woman`s beautiful head. A piece that was to have the profound simplicity of folk art but that was only made manifest in my imagination.
And where, spinning from the sprawling iron age wall high above Cardrona, I ran off into a blueberry strewn, sunlight-dappled pinewood, fleet and predatory as a Mohican !
But I also associate pounding the forest trails with heart and mind quietening. Body and word mantras pitched at my needy thoughts like bread to ducks on a pond. Stilled by the clocklike pulse of foot-step, arm-swing, ex-hale.
No comments:
Post a Comment