Issue 022:

A Love Letter to Running

A necessary discomfort that reveals something greater within me.
This act carries me forward, even as it pulls me back from distraction.
It steadies my mind, refocuses my attention.

I’ve wrestled with you.
I’ve ignored you.
I’ve even betrayed you.

Still, you remain—asking only that I show up.
Do this, let go of that.
I submit to the ritual and find both struggle and release.

Slowly, you pull me out of heavy thoughts
and into deeper, quieter ones.

If not for you, what would have filled that space?
I never knew how much I needed you.
I never imagined the lessons you would teach me.

You wipe the slate clean.
You remind me what matters—and what doesn’t.

Running is time made sacred for the mind,
an act of service to the body,
and its greatest gift is the quiet pride of becoming.

-CB