Cupcake - I'll take mine with rainbow sprinkles

I suppose sooner or later the topic of love will arise. So elusive. So full of paradox and hidden meaning. So complex, yet so simple.... Like sleeping in on Sunday mornings or afternoon naps. Like pairing of fine wine and haute cuisine. Like... Like... grinding up a hill that has got to be a 14 - 23% grade hill.

And, as I double check the grade of the hill repeats, I noticed Strava has me running in the lake. Okay - don’t believe anything Strava says. I did not run in the lake although since I was completely over heating, I wanted to. Now that I look at the map, what a mess! I need to clean up my run art, my goodness, it’s like someone just scribbled all over Four Lakes. Anyway, Strava didn’t record the ten stair repeats - Seven flights, ten times. Stealth like a ninja warrior now. Take that Strava - don’t record the indoor super secret training. I didn’t want you to have it anyway!

Yea? Um... I guess love subject will have to wait for another day. I don’t really have anything to say about love right now that isn’t complete cliche anyway. Except - okay - except this one thing. There is this one little thing I notice when I start to get to know people better. Or even if I have known them for a while (friends included, like girl friends even) - Only when you really look at them though.

I mean, it’s easy to look at people. We see people every day. You look around. You look and see everything. But not really. You look, but maybe you don’t see. Maybe you see, but you’re not really looking.

What I noticed, well, was reminded of, is innocence. When you see a person’s soul, and you see an innocent soul, a true soul, it is beautiful. Really.

See - even that sounds cliche. I’m tempted to add in a “fucking truly beautiful” there... And, if that helps you, add it.

It’s a funny thing - seeing beauty, or love, or truth. It is full of meaning and nothing at the same time. It just is what it is. And it’s fleeting. So even if you see it one day, or one moment do not be surprised if it vanishes.

That must be the thing about ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’ - we take it for granted. We just see so much. Some of us more than others (probably stories for another day - and not all of them for the faint of heart). And we look at everything (bombarded with visual simulation). It’s easy to unwittingly take it for granted.

Words like trust and faith can come into play here too. Maybe a simple deprivation experiment like just walking around blind folded for a day and taking the hands of others - relying on others. (Deprivation exercises will definitely have to be a topic for another day as well. If you’ve never done any, I’m going to have to recommend it. You will learn more than you think!)

So, back to hill repeats. They’re horrible. Like love? Because it is a lot of work, but so worth it at the end? (Bad simile?) The razzing may never end (insert smilie face here). If you do have to do such horrendous activities - be sure to do them with people that make you smile. By the way, I have discovered that I totally will go for a strawberry frosted cupcake with sprinkles. You can even call me cupcake if you want. I will take the cupcake if it means I don’t have to go 15 hill repeats and settle for ten.

Photo credit: Daniel Scott yoga - photo by Michael Chin