Tarmac Meditations

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Tarmac Meditations #128: Time’s Clenched Fist

August 4, 2013 By Michael Lebowitz 4 Comments

It hasn’t rained for a while. Been mostly hot to moderately hot, clear skies, easy breeze, not much goin’ on. Haven’t been writing I guess because I have gotten lost in a circle of medications that dull me out and leave me disconnected. Had a second event last week. I wish the Docs on the case would stop using my time and body as an experiment. It’s hard on a person when the meds are “wrong”, out of balance, whatever. It strains a guy’s tolerance and occasionally terrifies him. So, no more of this shit, okay? I’m feeling like time is a clenched fist, not so much waiting to strike the unwary but a contraction in the flow, a tightening up of space between the seconds, more tension in the unseen continuum. Mostly not a laughing matter.

I have felt the need to play with light and shadow, get reacquainted with the nature of things in black and white. It is not stark reality at all, more nuanced than all of that, often gentle, sometimes open to imagination and a glimpse of dreams long forgotten.

Stone Shadows

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Photo is © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved

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Tarmac Meditations #127: Rollin’ Fast and Gone

June 16, 2013 By Michael Lebowitz Leave a Comment

Started daydreamin’ when I should have been working. Thinking about races upcoming and the incredible places we get to run through. Even me, old and slow though I have become, I am still running with a camera from place to place. And waiting on the runners to pass by. I sometimes think, especially of late, that the big adventures are over for me, that a graceful slide in doin’ very little is what’s called for. And then it occurs to me that I am thinking like an old guy, someone who has given up on his dreams. And that ain’t me, Partner; just not goin’ down that road. No fuckin’ way.

Road Trip Dreamin' # 4 I started playing with some images I took in Central Oregon a while ago. Looking at them again It occurred to me that I am not a tourist anymore, that I have become a traveler on a road with no name, a local two lane blacktop kind of deal someplace I have never been but I am damn sure gonna get there. I can feel it “singin’ in my wires, tugging somewhere deep inside, callin’ me home to the high speed drift of just letting it roll.

Road Trip Dreamin' #3

 

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Photos © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved

 

Filed Under: Tarmac Meditations

Tarmac Meditations #126: Running With John Wayne

June 9, 2013 By Michael Lebowitz Leave a Comment

Caught some good runs this week. Comin’ on the heels of the last two weeks, the running was a blessing and a necessity. I took my phone with me on one of them in order that I might try to capture something of the feeling of it. It wasn’t as clear in my doing as it was in my head.

Abbey Road come home

I took a couple of images and kept running. Made it to a meeting. Came home, got dressed in real clothes and went to find out why my eyes weren’t workin’ so well. I found out. I think I’ll keep it close for the moment but it wasn’t nothing and it will change things. Right now I’m feeling like I’m in a John Wayne western, you know, the one where the lone figure is silhouetted against the Painted Desert, drinking his last cup of coffee and talking to the sky. He’s sayin’ that he’s outta coffee, down to his last smoke, that the Injuns are just over yonder and the Cavalry is busy somewhere else. He throws away the coffee grounds, stands up and says that he might as well git after it, time’s a wastin’ and there is work to do. Me, I’m sayin’ that it’s hard tellin’ not knowin’ what’s around the corner, down the road. But stayin’ still isn’t how it works. Movin’ forward, bein’ steady, me and what I believe in, we got to get goin’. Agein’ ain’t for the faint of heart. And it pays to remember that I am not alone as I move into the day, that people care about what I do, about how I am; that John Wayne movies were made up and never true. Knowing that, at long last, is a step in the right direction.

Blown Out Sunrise in Black and White

 

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Photos © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Tarmac Meditations

Tarmac Meditations #125: Keepin’ On

June 2, 2013 By Michael Lebowitz 2 Comments

Was a pretty tough week this past week, maybe longer. Woke up one day with no vision in my shooting eye. The jury on this one is still out but apparently the sun also rises as does the moon set and the days pass by, indifferent to my meager time here. But, if I greet every day with what I’ve got, blurry eye and fearful of not doing what I do, if I just lace up and light out for a time, everything will be in its place. I will do everything I know how to do going forward, I will learn what I need to know to keep at what I do; I will stay steady in the wind. The list of people in “my” boat got shorter this week; the ones who needed me to help them help me are no longer on the list. There just ain’t time for me to pull your weight, to soothe your fears of your own inadequacies. Your life matters too. Live in it, work it, get stronger. To some others I said “Have my back, I have yours”. Back to basics for me. Eat clean, play fair, get out and run everyday.

And then sometimes, when you think nobody’s lookin’, you cry.

And a Trail Runs Through It...

 

Photo Credit

Photo is © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved

 

Filed Under: Running, Tarmac Meditations

Tarmac Meditations #124: Comin’ Father’s Day

May 26, 2013 By Michael Lebowitz Leave a Comment

As she ran by me at mile 18 of the McDonald Forest 50K she seemed pretty happy. I noticed a Chinese ideogram tattoo on her shoulder. I asked her what it meant. She smiled and said ‘father”, very quietly.

She turned and headed down the trail.

Mile 18 mac Forest 2013

At the finish line I asked one of the volunteers why some people were finishing backwards. They told me the story of a man who had run a 5k backwards, who had died after crossing the finish line at Mac 10 years ago, who was being honored by those who remembered by their own finishing backwards. I finally put it together when I saw this at the finish.

Finsihing - Mac Forest 2013

 

Photo Credits

Photos are © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Running, Tarmac Meditations

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