Heal Thyself

[Greg Barrett]

(Photo was shot through the living room window by my youngest son, then 7)

HEAL THYSELF

Five days a week I skip rope, run, etc., for an hour. Rarely more, never less. During the workout I attempt to put away all angst and worries about deadlines and book sales and book talks and family bills and family problems. Instead I focus myself in prayer and meditation.

If I'm skipping rope (as I am here) I'll focus on a lone spot in the window, usually the logo on my shirt or a spot of sweat as it spreads outward into a broad swath. But I never feel as though I'm staring at a reflection of myself, just at a reflection ... of something. Of energy, of spirit, of ego, of things yin and yang.

Throughout the hour as I pray I imagine the perspiration as cleansing, a mental/physical/spiritual flushing of the day's pollutants. Somewhere in the last half of the workout I can feel the bad things in my diet, my environment, my thoughts, my selfish nature evaporate.

Finishing, I am soaked ... but cleansed. I have a keen sense that I've been granted a fresh start.