Walk Alone

It is more than just a really great, rich and deep track off The Roots’ How I Got Over release.  It is an encapsulating theme in my preparation for what we will face as a team at the end of July. 

I literally walk alone, whether Memphis or my recent brief times as the city of San Francisco was coming to life and to and from campus while in Spokane. It is me, myself and I day in and day out, step after step.  I also walk alone with my thoughts each and every day, whether in my neighborhood, on the stair climber, riding, or on equipment in various hotel exercise rooms.  Without the motivation of music, which to me, may be more stimulating than anything visual, I am both more aware of my surroundings and at the same time more open to the nagging thoughts from which doubt springs.  When is it hot and at 5:15 in the morning and I have around 5 miles left to go, my mind is open to “What I am I doing?”  At a crossroads whether I add on more distance, or could go straight home – “Cut is short today” might just pop up.  A small ache or pain can be “debated” for relevance and impact. “Will I be ready?” enters my mind every day.  I work through these deliberations and so far have stuck with the daily plan.  Whether it will add to my commitment and readiness when the times comes in July is yet to be known.

Walk alone is how I have moved through many parts of my life, lacking temporal and lasting connections when traveling and working in the early part of my career.  I have not been an outsider or on the fringe of the economy or society in my life, yet at the same time, there is not a natural connection to many but rather the few.  I connect at the individual level, and do not necessarily have natural group affinities.  I have had the pleasure to engage with great individuals in many different circumstances and locales, and yet when away from my home and Ramona, I walk alone through the lives of others in those fleeting moments.