raceystacey wrote:
Thanks for reading (and commenting) on my blog! And thanks for sharing the link, Nick! :-)
It's true, I'm pretty ordinary. I just have a fascination with very non-ordinary moments-as they truly make me feel alive. It's also an awesome way to see the world (from the waters, the mountains, the back roads on a bike, or running the backcountry trails). It all comes at a price-I can't downplay that-but I do think that it makes me a better human overall, which is why it's worth it.
Awhile back, I found this quote-and it really describes the moments I search for in my life. I find this moment through the sports I do:
“It’s when my brain switches off to everything else and only that moment exists. It’s probably the moment you feel most alive, but you’re not thinking about life. All you can think about is being…right there…right then. A little bit of it’s the elation afterwards, but most of it is just that real body and mind coming together, everything focused on that one task. I think that’s where it’s at.” ~M. Smith-Gobat (Climber) That's a great quote, Stacey!
It's funny, I was thinking along very similar lines yesterday as I was contemplating my 'best' moments, which inevitably happen through sport. Interestingly, finish lines rarely feature & the images that are seared in my memory are those when I've been out training by myself and there's been a perfect moment of me, my physical being and the time and place I inhabit at that point.
I remember a moment I was nearing the summit of Mt Hotham on my bike and I turned to glance back over my shoulder - looking back over the bowl of the valley beneath me, the vast folds of the Victorian alps beyond and just beneath the cloud cover, I felt like I'd ridden to the roof of the world - and I had it all to myself in that instant. It was magic!
There was another great thread on the womens a while ago that touched on some of those questions of why we do what we do - fascinating stuff:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=4456287