Gilda's Club and the Fifth Third River Bank Run

Friends,

As you may remember, last year I ran the River Bank Run to raise money for Gilda's Club of Grand Rapids. It was my first time running that race, the longest race I've ever ran. Windy, cold, rainy, and hilly, my first words after the finish were, "never again!" Both my mother and stepfather have endured cancer; my grandmother died of cancer just days after the race. Inspired by the great and very necessary work done at Gilda's Club, I have continued to volunteer there since last summer. A few weeks ago one of their staff asked if I would race again as part of their fundraising group. With more enthusiasm than common sense, I said, "yes."

And so now I turn to you and your friends, asking for a contribution. I am holding steady with training, getting in a little over 4 miles this morning. I'm a remarkably average runner, so having a dedicated purpose keeps me going. I'm not the fastest guy, but I'll finish!

If you choose to make a donation, you can click on this link to go directly to my web site:
http://www.active.com/donate/gildasclubgr2010/RunRicRun

And remember, there is still time for YOU to run the River Bank--the 5K, 10K, or to volunteer:
http://www.53riverbankrun.com/

Thanks!
Ric

Opening the Heart

When you think you cannot let the world in because it is so full of heartbreak, you underestimate yourself. You think, “I can’t let any more in,” because you feel like you are breaking apart. If you don’t follow that thought, can you simply allow your heart to let it all in? Not just the current disasters, but the disasters throughout time; not just the external disasters, but the internal disasters of your own life, your neighbor’s life, your friend’s life. Just really open the heart with no resistance.
That is the letting and the facing that I speak about. When you surrender to the pain, the heart does break, and there is profound grief. In the willingness for the heart to break, separation breaks also. Unless we resist or indulge it, the concept of separation disintegrates.
I am speaking of a very sober, still opening. I am suggesting that you just let it come in, and let it come in, and let it come in. Then there is a discovery that the heart breaks totally, forever open. This is possible for everyone. And all that keeps us from that is the thought, "I can’t do this."

Irish Jig, 2010

Appreciating Gloriousness

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness -- life's painful aspect -- softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.

-- Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Contemplating Pain

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, "Go with the pain, let it take you...open your palms and your body to the pain. It comes in waves like a tide, and you must be open as a vessel lying on the beach, letting it fill you up and then, retreating, leaving you empty and clear...With a deep breath--it has to be as deep as the pain--one reaches a kind of inner freedom from pain, as though the pain were not your but your body's. The spirit lays the body on the alter."
As our lives, our moments offer us opportunity to be with difficulty, the constant temptation to move away from pain seduces us. We can enter into states of denial, creating illusions that our difficulties do not exist; we can give into distractions, like wine, lust, and career competitions; we can hide our fears with unnecessary expressions of power and ego.
Sometimes pain is our experience. When we retreat from it, we disconnect from our reality, falling into illusion.
Today, strive to be with all your experiences--those that are pleasant, and those that disorient. Whether on your run, when your lungs burn, your eyes fill with salty sweat, and your legs throb--or in the solitude of your fear--fear of aging, of disease, illness; or the fear of losing a loved one. Make meaning. Be present.

Part of Something Greater

"Our places give shelter. That is a given.

Focused only on ourselves, filled with possessions, trying
to impress others, they deny the unity of all.

Connection with the greater truths of otherness has far
greater import than minutiae of our lives.

Focus on ourselves is endless looking in a mirror, reading the same story, replaying the same tape.
There's more richness, new stories, adventures beyond the mirror. The truth of ourselves includes the selves on the outside of our skins, and inside other of our skins.

Bring those lives into your life."

Tom Bender

Mind, Body, and Spirit: Friendship

Our mind, body, and spirit work together, always and in every way. Just as body only becomes stronger when mind and spirit support that quest, so too does body become weak when our mind or spirit suffer. Only through the constant striving for limitlessness--in mind, body, and spirit--will we accomplish our best. To do this is to inspire--to instill friendship and goodwill in others.