For my second weekend of summer it was a wee bit of a fail. I had a few hikes planned and sadly all of them fell through but it was not a let-down. During the week Staci, Katie and I headed over to the beach for a day trip. We played Frisbee and soccer in the sand and bounced around in the waves. A few times I underestimated my height and depth of the wave and found myself drenched more than I had planned. Here I also finally received my Staci tackle hug when she pummelled me lovingly into the wet ocean sand; wet sand is deceivingly hard… We spent the day beach-hopping around Pacific and Lincoln City, then headed back towards Mac. On the way home we stopped at a cute little diner and had a wonderful dinner. It was a great day back with missed friends.
Last Sunday I decided to go on a run in a new but familiar area. When I was little I remember every day driving past this farm and field full of dairy cows on my way to school, I would give my bovine friends a wave as we waited in the traffic to get on Stafford Road. As I grew, this plot of land went through many uses. Soon the dairy cows were gone and a beautiful open field of tall grass sat unused. This is the stage when my family and close family friends used the space to take our dogs and let them run and play in the open land. I have memories of being in middle school walking around the field with my best friend Courtney with our dogs bounding though the tall grasses and our moms strolling behind chattering. This solitude did not last, other dog owners began to invade our spot and soon the land was fenced off into a designated dog area putting boundaries on our memories. Luckily, within the past few years the city turned the area into a city park. A portion of the long grasses have been replaced by groomed soccer pitch grass and the dog area made even smaller. The city did leave a large portion of the field untouched and added a nice path to meander the plot. Here is where I went, surprisingly, for the first time since when it was my free space to explore unhindered with my dogs. I ran on the side of the cement and found a new view of the area I drive by every day.
The sun slowly set, highlighting the dried grasses as I jogged the path a few times. There was another runner doing her nightly exercise. On our first pass we gave a simple acknowledgement of the other’s existence with a pleasant smile and nod. Awkwardly we passed each other again on our second round of the trail but this time we laughed a bit, gave a goofy wave, and quickly repeated the exiting of each other’s lives. On my last round of the trail I noticed a pair of keys abandoned on the path. I picked them up to try and find the owners. Sure enough they belonged to the other runner. I did a dramatic wave down to bring attention to me and away from her music and run to pass back the lost keys. Here is the only time when we moved pass the knowledge of another existence to acquaintances. We shook hands and exchanged names and even had a short conversation about how she always comes to this spot. She thanked me a few more times and we parted ways not before pointing out we will most likely see each other again. For the rest of my run I thought about the circumstance that brought about our meeting and how people almost avoid each other unless something is thrown in their path to force the introduction. We both obviously had at least one thing in common, running, and yet we never even thought to talk to each other. Are we so wound up in our own lives that it would be offensive to be approached by a friendly stranger to just talk? It seems like we are so plugged into ourselves or our music or whatever we are doing to notice other people and I mean really notice and take interest in them. This simple encounter has given me days of thought, where are our solitary life styles taking us?
We aren’t breathing for nothing.
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