because this model's on a mission.
In just a few short days I’ll be wending my way through the fogbowed mountains of Marin Valley. Last time we did the Tennessee Valley trail, we barely jogged 200 meters before we were met with the dusty incline. One’s body always seems to operate in two halves when it approaches it’s first hill: the top half characterized by the rapidity of one’s heart beating loudly like an angry gorilla behind its cage; the bottom half marked by a near shuffling gait that slowly shakes one’s muscles from their sloth-like torpor. It always amazes me how the body seems to even itself out – heart rate slowing, legs picking up stride – even before the hill tires of itself and lays down its horizon.
Reaching the first apex of the trail is magnificent: The clouds spill below your gaze like a moiré suspended on a still summer breeze. Then you are led down — quickly, steeply — through yellow lipped flowers and red-brushed corollas until you dip-dive into the chilled fog below. If you desire you can work your way down towards the ocean or choose the harder trail uphill. By that time your heart is humming. It’s the same happy tune my mother used to sing to herself in the summer months as she canned tart currants and sun-sweetened raspberries for jams and jellies.
I’ll welcome these mountains again. Perhaps this time we’ll choose to take an alternate route through the Pantoll – our bodies imbibing the heavy scent of redwoods and pine like a thirsty seed. Those who choose to enter the forest are imbued with a sense of peace. There is little more than thought – so present, so pure. Still waters run deep here.
We’ll finish strong, racing towards the setting sun…Sweating, smiling, panting. A short stretch, a gulp of water – perhaps even a high-five. The next day or day after that — I’ll take the stage – but only for a time – to make way for an incredible crop of young folks at the Brower Youth Awards who exemplify a strength of spirit and determination that is unbeknownst, unfelt, or unrecognized by the vast majority of the population.
What pleasure I will have running through that day.
