An Ode to Writing and Running

This morning, I went into the office early.

I had a cup of tea and sat down to write my new column in the quiet of the office. (It’s due today).

Slowly, the office became populated and was buzzing with noise and activity. My boss even came in to say a few things to me, but it was all melded into one giant white noise for me.
I was writing.

When I finally glanced up to acknowledge the presence of my boss, he shook his head. “There are two of you, you know. Regular Jessica and Writer Jessica. You normally are talking and laughing and selling ads, but when you are writing you escape and have this ridiculous laser beam focus.”
I’ll take that as a compliment.

I heard somewhere that you need to find something that makes you forget about time and then do it for a living. Where you begin something and look up and an hour has past. I always wanted to have that “thing” and I searched hard for many of my teenage years until two things fell into this category – writing and running. Now in my twenties, I don’t feel this way about them every day and I never have. I think getting lost into something takes years of practice and the better you get at understanding and knowing it, the more lost in it you become. Some days I am a sloppy writer and others, I have the longest and most painful run of life – even if it was only 20 minutes.

This weekend, I am going to run injured on a cold, rainy day with peers that are far above me and I will probably finish in the bottom quarter because it is a varsity race. And that is ok. Because I love running.

And it is like writing. Because I have cold, rainy, injured writing days sometimes too. But I write because I love it.

Which is why when Hook & Eye sent out a call for regular bloggers, I said “why not.” I don’t go to university right now, but they seemed to think it would work. And I am honored to be blogging alongside one of my favourite professors who just so happens to be one of my all time role models because of it.

And why when Alternatives Journal suggested I put forward an application for a feature under the Sustainable Alternatives blog, I went for it.

And when I was asked to write a history book for kids, I said yes.

Because even though I may not be the greatest academic feminist, environmentalist or historian on the planet, I am going to do my best. I want to thank all of you for supporting me and allowing me to get more comfortable with my writing by commenting and critiquing. I love you all.

Shifting to a writer who is smart as he is awesome, please check out the delightful blog of a dear friend of mine. He is a naturopath and a runner so he is obviously a genius.

That’s all I have for this gorgeous Friday! Check in next week to see if I was able to hobble across the finish line.