“This is the place. Time to get out.”
I looked out the window of the jeep. Craggy rocks, red,
towering mountains. I opened the door and hopped out.
Rocks crackled as the car
pulled away, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
And here I was. Alone. Utterly alone in a vast, silent
desert. My only connection to the outside world was my cell phone, tucked into
my pocket. I checked the phone to make sure I had connection. One thin bar
flashed across my screen, a weak line out if I needed it.
Hands free. No heavy backpack this time. And no water. I felt as if I had been dropped onto Mars without oxygen. Or
perhaps like a heli skier does when the helicopter drops him on a mountaintop
into a world of pure, untouched nature.
Unlike a skier, I was not forging a new trail. I had the
comforting yellow, blue and white stripes of the Israel Trail markers to
follow.
I cradled the phone one more time, my lifeline to help if I
needed it, and started to run the trail.
The sky was a deep blue, the air wintry
fresh, the silence so strong, it felt as if it were a roar. I breathed deeply and skipped along the path,
the only sound being the crunch of rock beneath my feet.
I love to run and I love running unencumbered, freestyle.
Without headphones in my ears and blasting music, it has become my form of
meditation.
I was on this particular path to do a missing section of the
Israel National Trail. Having completed 900 km
of the 1,000 km trail over the past three years, I am intent on doing it all. Running
the trail all alone was a new variation as we usually hike slowly in a group laden with backpacks.
So today I felt free, exhilarated and a tiny bit scared.
This helped propel me forward through a barren wilderness reigned by
rocks.
Life offers few opportunities to be utterly alone, to be
surrounded by an empty silent expanse. I
wanted to breathe in the moment, to surrender to it and to heal from our modern
world’s overload, tragedies and mess.
I know that if I do not make space for this, I will be swept
up by it.
And so I run. Because this is
the place.
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